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A   STRANGE    CAREER 


L- 


a  Strange  Career 


LIFE  AND  ADVENTURES 


OF 


JOHN    GLADWYN   J  EBB 


By   HIS   WIDOW 


WITH 

AN  INTRODUCTION   BY   H.  RIDER   HAGGARD 


JUiaitl)  portrait 


BOSTON 

ROBERTS     BROTHERS 

1895 


§Hntbersttg  $ress: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


The  compiler  of  this  history  wishes  to  state  that  its 
production  has  been  materially  aided  by  several 
sketches  of  the  more  striking  among  his  adventures, 
which  from  time  to  time  were  set  down  by  Mr  Jebb 
himself. 

The  story  which  he  contributed  to  '  Blackwood's 
Magazine'  for  January  1872,  entitled  "The  Haunted 
Enghenio,"  has  been  here  reproduced  in  the  slightly 
altered  form  in  which  it  actually  occurred. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction      .    .    - xv 

CHAPTER   I. 

BOYHOOD,  AND  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  ARMY. 

Jack  Jebb's  parentage  —  Early  life  at  Walton  —  Education 
at  Bonn  and  at  Chesterfield  —  Holidays  at  Firbeck  —  His 
daring  and  love  of  mischief — At  school  at  Cheltenham 

—  Favourite  studies  —  An  adventure  at  Leckhampton  — 
Sent  to  an  army  coach  —  Enters  Woolwich  —  Gazetted  to 
the  88th  Regiment —  His  mother's  death  —  Has  a  premo- 
nition of  the  event  —  The  last  tie  gone  —  Sails  to  join 
his  regiment  in  India I 

CHAPTER   II. 

INDIAN    SERVICE. 

The  route  to  India  thirty  years  ago  —  Flirtation  onboard 
ship  —  Jack  Jebb's  journey  —  A  hypnotic  experiment  — 
Regimental  duties  —  A  midnight  encounter  with  a  native 

—  Three  years  of  hard  work — Down  with  fever  —  An 
acrimonious  native  official  —  Indomitable  British  pluck  — 
A  night's  imprisonment  —  A  court  scene  —  Recruiting 
strength  on  the  hills 15 

CHAPTER   III. 

BUSINESS    DISASTERS. 

Re-marriage  of  Rev.  Mr.  Jebb  —  Jack  Jebb  returns  to  Eng- 
land—  Complicated  business  affairs  —  Resigns  his  com- 
mission —  At  Oxford  University  —  Society,  athletics,  and 
reading  —  An  odd  apparition —  Goes  on  a  shooting  tour 


viii  Contents. 

to  Skye  —  A  comfortable  income  —  Determines  to  specu- 
late—  A  partner  in  a  Glasgow  steel  gun-barrel  factory  — 
An  unfortunate  strike  —  £23,000  lost  in  a  year  —  Belated 
Government  orders  —  Chafing  under  inaction  —  An  expe- 
dition to  Nicaragua  —  Experiences  of  a  tropical  climate 

—  An  adventure  in  Guatemala — Home  again — Overend 
&  Gurney's  insolvency  —  Deprived  of  his  remaining 
fortune  —  Employment  a  necessity — Learns  sheep-farm- 
ing          ....     29 

CHAPTER   IV. 

COFFEE-PLANTING  IN    BRAZIL. 

Farm-life  in  the  Highlands  —  Amongst  a  silent  folk  —  A 
haunted  glen  —  Fresh  enterprise  —  Assists  in  founding 
the  White  Star  Line  —  Small  gain  from  the  undertaking 

—  A  business  tour  though  the  United  States — Unconge- 
nial duties  —  Visit  to  Brazil  —  Manager  on  a  coffee  plan- 
tation —  Supervision  of  negro  labourers  —  Dark  story  of 
the  fazenda — An  instance  of  Jebb's  unselfishness  — 
Overwork  and  malaria — A  moonlight  ride  through  the 
forest  —  A  vision  of  the  night  —  Swamp  fever  —  Peculiar 
receptive  conditions  of  the  mind 48 

CHAPTER  V. 

IN   THE   FAR   WEST. 

Relapse  of  illness  —  Ordered  to  a  colder  climate  —  Getting 
used  to  his  persistent  ill-luck  —  Opportunely  realises 
certain  "expectations"  —  Sails  for  New  York — Meets 
with  an  old  frontiersman  —  After  buffalo  in  the  Far  West 

—  Some  of  the  discomforts  of  camping  out  —  Bob 
Harker's  characteristic  —  Narrow  escape  from  accidental 
shooting —  A  prairie  murder —  Conjectures  as  to  the  per- 
petrator —  A  long  record  of  crime  —  A  ghastly  sign  — 
Scare  in  regard  to  mountain  travelling — The  vigilantes 
fail  to  find  a  clue  —  Newspaper  articles  on  the  outrages 

—  Personal  danger 64 

CHAPTER   VI. 

AN   ADVENTURE  ON   THE   PLAINS. 

On  the  march  —  Precautions  against  Indians  —  "  Sign  "  of 
buffalo  —  A  bloody  conspiracy  on  foot  — A  scout's  loyalty 


Cotitents.  ix 

—  Further  atrocities  —  Break-up  of  the  hunting  party  — 
Jack  Jebb  joins  in  pursuit  of  the  manslayer  —  The  prob- 
able criminal  and  his  rendezvous  —  Tracked  —  A  descrip- 
tion of  "  Lost  Park  "  —  The  scout's  mode  of  attack  — 
Retribution  at  last  —  A  gruesome  diary  —  The  career  of 
"  Big  Foot  " —  The  long-cherished  vengeance  of  a  member 
of  a  Southern  race 80 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SPORT   IN   COLORADO. 

Frontier  law —  Festivities  at  Alma —  Renewed  purpose  of 
shooting  big  game  —  Setting  out  to  the  Rocky  Mountains 
—  Abundant  sport,  and  episodes  of  a  varied  character  — 
Bear-trapping  in  company  of  a  partner  —  Another  bear 
story  —  A  close  shave  —  Active  hostility  of  the  Utes  — 
Work-ox  versus  steer-beef  —  Meets  General  Fremont,  the 
discoverer  of  California  —  Resolves  to  see  the  "Golden 
State  "  —  Effects  of  civilisation  in  the  Western  States  — 
Denver  and  Leadville  at  the  outset  of  their  history  — 
Impressions  of  San  Francisco  —  Prospecting  in  Sacra- 
mento Valley  —  The  gold-diggers  and  their  ways  —  Suffer- 
ings from  fever  and  ague  —  A  desperate  remedy  — 
Perversity  of  his  luck  even  with  diseases  —  Back  to  Colo- 
rado        99 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

FURTHER   PURSUIT   OF  GOLD. 

Purchase  of  the  "  Great  Whale  "  mines  at  Denver  —  Jack 
Jebb's  contribution  of  money  to  the  scheme  —  Assumes 
chief  management  of  the  mines — His  headquarters  — 
Enjoys  living  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  —  Boston  friends 
on  a  neighbouring  property —  Dangers  from  Rapahoes  — 
The  bringing-in  of  provisions  — The  mails  —  Snow-shoe- 
ing the  most  convenient  method  of  travel  —  Advantages 
of  the  Norwegian  snow-shoe  —  An  adventurous  nocturnal 
journey  —  Meets  with  an  accident  —  Tries  a  bold  experi- 
ment—  Strikes  an  old  mining-camp  —  A  false  alarm  — 
How  "bear"  tracks  are  made  —  Story  of  a  grizzly 
hunt         117 


Contents. 


CHAPTER   IX.' 

THE  ROCKY   MOUNTAINS   DURING  WINTER. 

A  mountain  storm  —  A  second  night's  camping  out  —  Has 
a  mishap  in  cooking  with  a  powder  labelled  "  Borwick's  " 
—  A  toilsome  journey  —  The  very  low  temperature  of  the 
season —  Discovers  that  he  had  taken  strychnine  —  Fall 
in  descending  a  mining-shaft  —  Another  "  near  thing  "  — 
An  exceptional  winter — Plan  of  domestic  management 
adopted  by  Jack  Jebb  and  a  companion  —  On  short  rations 
Reduced  to  the  last  extremity  —  An  exception  to  a  whole 
life's  bad  luck  —  A  supper  of  elk  —  The  snow  lifts  —  His 
reflections  on  the  events  of  the  past  months     ....     133 


CHAPTER   X. 

AFFAIRS  AT  DENVER. 

Spring  in  a  western  mining-camp  —  Heavy  outlay  on  the 
"Great  Whale"  mines  —  A  consultation  on  the  subject 
necessary — Starts  for  New  York — Stay  at  Boston  — 
American  hospitality  —  The  variety  of  religions  in  Boston 
Large  spiritualistic  element  in  its  schools  of  thought  — 
Anecdote  of  a  seance — His  interest  in  the  Psychical  Re- 
search Society  —  Sails  for  England  —  Family  calls  — 
Marriage  and  return  to  Denver  —  Methods  of  obtaining 
camp-supplies  —  A  mysterious  pedlar  —  Trapping  bear  — 
An  amusing  climax —  The  great  eclipse  in  the  Rockies  — 
A  magnificent  spectacle  —  Effect  of  the  phenomenon  on 
a  party  of  Utes  — Jack  Jebb  and  his  neighbours  —  A  re- 
markable feat 149 


CHAPTER   XI. 

LAST   EFFORTS   AS  A    PIONEER. 

The  winter  of  1S78  in  Colorado —  An  extraordinary  frost  — 
A  terrible  journey  through  the  storm  —  Fairly  beaten  by 
the  weather — An  avalanche  sweeps  away  an  entire  camp 
—  Jack  Jebb  leads  a  search  party  —  Risk  incurred  by  the 
searchers  —  Success  of  their  efforts  —  The  troubles  at- 
tendant on  mining  —  The  concern  at  Denver  turns  out 


Contents.  xi 

profitless  —  Back  in  New  York  —  Becomes  a  partner  in 
an  omelette  company —  Awaiting  developments  — ('loses 
with  a  proposal  to  go  out  to  Mexico  as  a  manager  of 
mines        169 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    LAND    OF    MONTEZUMA. 

Different  ways  of  getting  to  Mexico — Havana — Mexican 
ladies  —  Vera  Cruz  —  Jack  Jebb  takes  the  railway  route 
from  New  York  —  Events  of  the  journey  —  The  town  of 
Mexico  —  His  destination  —  Picturesque  scenery  —  Is 
the  first  European  in  these  sierras  —  Secures  a  faithful 
bodyguard  —  Friendliness  of  the  workmen — "Poverty 
Row"  —  A  dynamite  scare  —  Domstic  difficulties  and 
how  met  —  An  ingenious  official — A  primitive  state  of 
society — The  splendid  climate  —  The  Padre  and  his 
salary  —  An  encouragement  to  matrimony  —  Relics  of 
the  old  Aztec  worship         188 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

A   BRUSH  WITH   BANDITTI. 

Treachery  in  camp  —  The  ex-manager,  Don  Eduardo,  and 
his  scheme  of  revenge  —  The  gathering  of  the  enemy  — 
A  discontented  peon  —  Sebastiano  drunk  and  Sebastiano 
sober  —  The  plot  leaks  out  —  Peculiar  arrangements  for 
defence  —  A  smart  capture — An  instance  of  summary 
justice  —  Power  of  the  district  Cacique —  A  supporter  of 
the  Emperor  Maximilian — An  old  battle-ground — The 
Cacique's  description  of  the  fight  —  Devotion  of  the 
tribesmen  to  their  chief —  The  clannish  feeling  still  exist- 
ent in  Mexico         207 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

MEXICAN   HISTORY  AND   LEGEND. 

The  Emperor  Maximilian  and  his  fate — His  false  coun- 
sellors—  His  chivalrous  courage  —  The  siege  of  Quere- 
taro —  President  Juarez  —  General  Diaz  —  A  case  of 
diamond  cut  diamond  —  The  strange  mixture  of  absolute 
freedom  and  military  despotism  in  Mexico —  Progress  of 


xii  Contents. 

affairs  at  the  mines  —  A  breakdown  of  machinery — Divi- 
dends still  in  the  distance —  Heroism  of  an  Indian  lad  — 
A  Mexican  superstition  —  The  legend  of  Don  Isidoro  de 
la  Vega — His  hatred  of  the  Spaniards  —  Don  Miguel 
Gomez  —  Don  Isidoro's  vengeance  —  Sent  a  prisoner  to 
the  mines  —  His  punishment  —  A  wild  tragedy    .     .     .     224 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE   CITY   OF    MEXICO. 

Character  of  the  peons  —  Relaxations  of  the  English  settlers 

—  Jack  Jebb's  love  of  the  capital  —  Illustrations  of  Mexi- 
can manners  —  An  attack  on  the  gaol —  How  a  mob  was 
managed  —  An  "  electrical  "  state  of  the  political  atmos- 
phere —  Popular  demonstrations  —  A  tiny  match-seller 

—  A  skirmish  in  the  streets  between  military  and  civilians 

—  A  ludicrous  anti-climax  —  Misplaeed  philanthropy  — 
The  rule  of  President  Diaz  —  His  private  character  — 
Love  of  sport  —  Strict  measures  with  banditti     .     .     .     243 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    "  KNIGHTS    OF    THE     ROAD." 

A  good  day's  sport  —  Reminiscences  of  travelling  adven- 
tures —  A  general  robbed  four  times  in  one  day  —  Gen- 
erous bandits  —  A  gentlemanly  captor  —  Bandits  of  an 
amateurish  cut  —  The  limit  of  endurance  reached  — 
Corroboration  of  the  narrative  —  Another  tale  —  The 
employment  of  disbanded  troops — A  war-interlude  in  the 
interests  of  justice  —  Robber  chiefs  and  the  church  — 
Death  of  Jebb's  remaining  aunt  —  Meets  his  second  wife 

—  Marriage  postponed  for  financial  reasons  —  An  origi- 
nal honeymoon 259 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

SEARCH   FOR  TREASURE. 

Reconstruction  of  the  mining  concern  —  Jebb's  large  circle 
of  acquaintances  —  A  variety  of  business  proposals  — The 
hidden  treasure  of  Guatamoc  —  An  old  chief's  secret  —  A 
further  story  of   buried  millions  —  A   Padre's  vigilance 

—  The  hiding-place  of  Montezuma's  treasure  —  Vigorous 


Contents.  xiii 

explorations  —  Interesting  finds  —  The  totem-mark  of 
Guatamoc  —  An  underground  passage  —  Proceedings 
abruptly  stopped  —  Lingering  belief  in  the  existence  of 
Montezuma's  treasure 277 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

FRESH    FIELDS. 

A  new  gold-mine  —  An  untrustworthy  adviser  —  Seized 
with  serious  illness  —  Tries  the  sulphur  baths  at 
Puebla  —  The  manufacture  of  antiquities  —  The  bandits 
of  Malinche  —  A  Yankee  drummer's  prowess  —  The 
pyramid  at  Cholula  —  Return  to  work  —  Negotiates  a 
mining  property  in  the  state  of  Chiapas  —  An  unpleasant 
journey — Insect  pests  —  Wonderful  relics  of  a  bygone 
civilisation  —  A  sacred  snake — Distress  of  a  British 
tourist  —  On  the  look-out  for  antiquities  —  The  ingenious 
American  tourist 294 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  SIERRAS   ONCE  MORE. 

Mexican  bull-fights  —  Bull-sports  —  Reseeks  the  sierras  — 
Sent  for  by  the  Cacique  —  A  supposed  mysterious  murder 

—  Makes  a  discovery  —  The  pursuit  —  Not  a  case  of 
murder,  but  of  insanity — A  fierce  resistance  —  Gratitude 
of  the  accused  criminal —  Popularity  among  the  peons  — 
At  "  Poverty  Row  "  —  Enjoyment  of  the  free  unconven- 
tional life  —  Birth  of  a  son  —  Acquisition  of  an  Aztec 
idol  —  Its  apparent  unlucky  influence  —  Its  first  night  on 

a  foreign  soil — Continued  malign  effects 310 

CHAPTER    XX. 

CLOSING   YEARS. 

Residence  in  Mexico  —  An  ancient  house  —  Out-door 
pleasures  —  A  pic-nic  party  at  Patzcuaro — A  famous 
picture  —  Business  prosperity  seems  well  assured  —  Sets 
out  on  a  visit  to  England — A  misadventure  by  the  way 

—  Arrival  at  New  York  —  Settles  in  London  —  His  evil 
star  —  Mexico  once  again  —  Last  illness  —  Home  to 
London  —  Death  —  Jack  Jebb's  life  hardly  a  failure    .     331 


INTRODUCTION. 


It  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that 
among  the  many  acquaintances  we  make  from 
year  to  year,  we  chance  now  and  again  to  find 
one  whose  personality  has  for  us  a  singular 
attraction.  Such  was  the  fortune  of  the  writer 
of  this  preface  in  the  instance  of  his  late  friend 
John  Gladwyn  Jebb. 

I  think  it  was  in  the  year  1889  that  I  was 
introduced  to  Mr  Jebb,  one  night  at  a  London 
dinner-party,  and  I  remember  being  impressed 
at  first  sight  by  his  powerful  build,  his  kindly 
face,  and  the  peculiar  gentleness  of  his  brown 
eyes.  Before  the  evening  was  over  I  found  in 
him  a  person  different  from  the  generality  of 
men  —  a  man  rich  in  a  rare  quaintness  and 
originality  of  mind,  and  withal  one  of  the  most 
agreeable  and  interesting  companions  whom  I 
had  met  for  many  a  day. 

At  that  time  Mr  Jebb  was  at  home  on. a  visit 
from  Mexico,  where  he  was  engaged  in  busi- 
ness affairs,  and  it  was  of  Mexico  that  he  talked 
—  its  history,  its  legends,  and  many  strange 
adventures  which  had  befallen  him  there.  This 
meeting  led  to  others,  and  resulted  at  length  in 
an  invitation,  that  I  accepted,  to  visit  Mr  Jebb 


xvi  Introduction. 

in  Mexico,  when  we  proposed  to  explore  some 
of  the  ruined  cities  in  the  Palenque  district, 
and  also  to  make  an  attempt  to  recover  Monte- 
zuma's, or  rather  Guatemoc's,  treasure,  where- 
of the  story  is  told  in  these  pages.  To  the 
hiding-place  of  this  hoard  he  had  a  key  —  now, 
as  I  believe,  lost  for  ever. 

Accordingly,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1 89 1  I  journeyed  to  Mexico,  where  I  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  Mr  Jebb,  and  from  that 
time  I  date  my  intimate  acquaintance  with 
him.  All  the  things  which  we  were  to  have 
done  together  we  did  not  do,  seeing  that  we 
were  stayed  by  a  sudden  and  terrible  domestic 
calamity,  whereof  it  is  needless  to  write. 
Therefore  it  was  that  the  ruined  cities  for 
which  we  were  about  to  start  remained  unvis- 
ited  and  Guatemoc's  treasure  unsought. 

Still,  we  made  several  expeditions  together, 
and  among  them  a  month's  trip  into  the  inte- 
rior of  the  State  of  Chiapas  —  on  the  whole  the 
roughest  piece  of  journeying  that  has  come 
within  my  experience  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

It  was  as  a  travelling  companion  that  Mr. 
Jebb  showed  at  his  very  best  ;  for  not  until 
discomfort  and  even  danger  had  been  endured 
in  his  company,  was  it  possible  to  measure  his 
complete,  his  collossal  unselfishness.  When 
the  nerves  are  shattered  by  sorrow  and  anxiety, 
and  the  body  is  worn  out  with  petty  vexations 
and  weariness  ;  when  the  stomach  turns  at  the 


Introduction,  xvii 

nastiness  that  in  the  wilder  parts  of  Mexico 
passes  for  food,  and  every  square  inch  of  skin 
is  smarting  from  the  stings  of  insect  pests, — 
then  it  is,  perhaps  unconsciously,  that  the  most 
patient  and  considerate  of  us  are  apt  to  revert 
to  the  primitive  principle  of  "every  man  for 
himself." 

Not  so  Mr  Jebb,  however.  If  there  were  not 
enough  hammocks,  or  a  lack  of  room  to  swing 
them  in  the  shed,  it  was  he  who  insisted  upon 
sleeping  outside  in  the  rain  and  on  the  ground; 
if  there  was  a  choice  of  places  in  the  coach,  it 
was  he  who  sped  to  secure  the  worst  one,  and 
so  forth. 

Indeed  he  carried  this  principle  to  extremes, 
as  the  following  story  will  show. 

Among  our  baggage  on  the  occasion  of  this 
journey  into  the  depths  of  Chiapas  was  a  mule- 
load  of  silver  —  some  3000  dollars  of  it,  which 
we  were  conveying  to  the  Santa  Fe  mine.  One 
night  we  reached  a  certain  inland  town,  and 
were  hospitably  entertained  in  one  of  the  larg- 
est houses;  still,  as  such  a  thing  as  robbery, 
highway  and  wholesale,  has  been  heard  of  in 
the  more  remote  districts  of  Mexico,  Mr  Jebb 
thought  it  safer  to  take  to  his  bedroom  the 
bullion  which  we  were  known  to  have  in  our 
charge.  Now,  as  he  learned  afterwards  from 
native  sources,  the  possibility  of  possessing 
themselves  of  so  much  cash  proved  too  much 
for  the  feeble  honesty  of  sundry  of  the  inhabi- 


xviii  Introduction. 

tants  of  this  town,  who  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment to  steal  the  dollars  that  night,  and  should 
we  interfere  in  the  matter,  incidentally  to  cut 
our  throats. 

About  midnight  these  worthies  began  to 
attempt  the  execution  of  their  plan.  As  it 
chanced,  Mr  Jebb  and  myself  occupied  differ- 
ent sleeping-places,  separated  by  the  length  of 
a  large  eating-room.  The  house  stood  upon 
the  edge  of  a  very  steep  slope,  at  the  foot  of 
which  ran  a  river,  and  immediately  beneath  the 
rickety  and  latchless  French  windows  of  Mr 
Jebb's  room  rose  a  supporting  wall  built  of 
loose  stones. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  was  awakened 
two  or  three  times  by  the  furious  barking  of 
some  curs  belonging  to  the  establishment  as 
they  rushed  through  the  gardens  on  the  slope; 
but  the  noise  ceasing  after  a  while,  having 
ascertained  that  my  revolver  was  at  hand,  I 
went  to  sleep  again,  thinking  no  more  of  the 
matter. 

In  the  morning  Mr  Jebb,  who  had  risen  early 
to  make  inquiry  and  investigations,  asked  me 
if  I  had  been  disturbed  in  the  night.  Then  he 
told  me  this  story.  It  seems'  that  he  had  some 
suspicion  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to 
steal  the  silver,  and  therefore  he  slept  very 
lightly.  In  due  course  the  barking  of  the  dogs 
roused  him,  and  he  crept  from  his  bed  to  the 
French  windows,   which  it  was   impossible  to 


Introduction.  xix 

secure,  and  listened.  Hearing  the  robbers  whis- 
pering below  at  the  foot  of  the  wall,  he  retreated 
to  the  bed  again  and  seated  himself  on  the  edge 
of  it,  holding  a  wax  match  in  one  hand  and  his 
long-barrelled  Colt  cocked  in  the  other. 

This  was  his  plan :  to  wait  till  he  heard  the 
thieves  push  open  the  French  windows,  then  to 
strike  the  match  (for  the  night  was  pitch-dark), 
and  by  its  light  to  fire  at  them  over  it  before 
they  could  attack  him. 

For  a  long  while  he  sat  thus,  and  twice  he 
heard  the  loose  stones  dropping  as  his  assail- 
ants began  to  climb  up  the  wall  beneath  the 
window;  but  on  each  occasion  they  were  fright- 
ened by  the  clamour  of  the  dogs,  which  at 
length  grew  so  loud  that,  thinking  our  Indian 
servants,  who  slept  at  a  distance  from  the  house, 
would  be  aroused,  the  thieves  took  to  flight 
without  the  dollars,  leaving  nothing  but  some 
footprints  behind  them. 

"And  why  did  you  not  come  and  wake  me?  " 
I  asked,  when  he  had  finished  his  tale. 

"Oh,"  he  answered,  "I  nearly  did  so,  but  I 
knew  that  you  were  very  tired ;  also  there  was 
no  use  in  both  of  us  handing  in  our  checks,  for 
there  were  a  dozen  of  those  devils,  and  had 
they  got  into  the  room,  for  their  own  sakes 
they  would  have  made  a  clean  sweep  of  us. " 

I  did  not  make  any  reply;  but  I  remember 
thinking,  and  I  still  think,  that  this  conduct 
showed  great  courage  and  great  unselfishness 


xx  Introduction. 

on  the  part  of  Mr  Jebb.  Most  people  would 
have  retreated  at  the  first  alarm ;  but  this,  with 
the  utter  fearlessness  which  was  one  of  his 
characteristics,  he  did  not  do,  since  the  dollars 
in  his  charge  were  too  heavy  to  carry;  and 
before  men  could  be  found  to  assist  him,  they 
would  have  been  secured  by  the  robbers,  who 
knew  well  where  to  look  for  them.  In  the  rare 
event,  however,  of  the  supply  of  personal  pluck 
proving  equal  to  such  an  occasion,  how  many 
of  us,  for  the  reasons  given,  having  a  well- 
armed  white  companion  at  hand,  would  have 
neglected  to  summon  him  to  take  his  part  in 
the  fray  ?  A  man  must  be  very  brave  and  very 
unselfish  indeed  to  choose  to  face  a  band  of 
Mexican  cut-throats  alone  when  a  word  would 
bring  a  comrade  to  his  side. 

I  have  told  the  story  of  this  particular  little 
adventure  at  length,  although  it  is  trivial  com- 
pared to  many  others  which  are  to  be  read  of  in 
this  book,  because  I  happen  to  be  personally 
acquainted  with  the  details,  which  serve  to  il- 
lustrate one  side  of  my  late  friend's  character. 

Into  Mr  Jebb's  history  I  do  not  propose  to 
enter,  for  it  is  set  out  hereafter  by  his  biogra- 
pher. Rarely  if  ever  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury has  a  man  lived  so  strange  and  varied  an 
existence.  "Adventures  are  to  the  adventur- 
ous/' the  saying  tells  us,  and  certainly  they 
were  to  Mr  Jebb.  From  the  time  that  he  came 
to  manhood  he   was  a  wanderer;    and  how   it 


Introduction.  xxi 

chanced  that  he  survived  the  many  perils  of  his 
daily  life  is  nothing  less  than  a  mystery.  In 
the  end,  however,  they  brought  his  fate  upon 
him  prematurely;  for  the  diseases  of  which  he 
died  resulted  from  neglected  illnesses  and  con- 
tinual exposure  that  would  have  sufficed  again 
and  again  to  kill  any  one  of  a  less  perfect 
constitution. 

When  I  returned  to  England  in  1891  he  came 
also,  and  for  a  while  took  up  his  abode  in  Lon- 
don. Soon,  however,  his  old  restlessness  and 
his  love  of  sunshine  got  the  better  of  him,  and 
he  journeyed  back  to  Mexico  armed  with  an 
invention  for  extracting  metals  from  refractory 
ores  by  a  new  process  which,  he  was  convinced, 
would  bring  in  thousands.  As  might  be  ex- 
pected, it  did  nothing  of  the  sort;  indeed  it 
broke  down  utterly  when  put  to  the  proof,  and 
Mr  Jebb's  health  with  it.  For  the  last  of  many 
times,  a  mere  wreck  of  his  former  self,  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic  homewards,  to  die  in 
London,  after  much  suffering  most  patiently 
endured,   on  the   iSth  March   1893. 

On  next  page  is  reproduced  a  fragment  of  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  me,  dated  shortly 
before  his  death.  I  believe  that  these  are  the 
very  last  words  he  was  able  to  pen,  and  it  will 
be  seen  that  his  strength  failed  him  before  he 
could  complete  them. 

It  only  remains  for  me,  if  I  may  venture  to 
do  so,  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  Mr  Jebb's  char- 


xxii  Introduction. 

acter,  which  in  many  ways  strikes  me  as  one  of 
the  most  attractive  that  ever  came  under  my 
observation. 


Of  all  friends  he  was  the  gentlest  and  truest; 
of  all  men  the  most  trustful.  Indeed  it  was 
this  childlike  guilelessness  that  ruined  him,  for 
throughout  his  life  he  was  the  prey  of  his  own 
sanguine  temperament.      He   worked  hard  for 


Introduction.  xxiii 

many  years,  worked  as  few  men  work,  and  yet 
I  believe  I  am  right  in  saying  that  he  never 
once  got  the  best  of  a  bargain,  or  had  to  do 
with  an  enterprise  which  proved  successful  — 
at  any  rate,  so  far  as  his  own  interests  were 
concerned. 

It  is  not  wonderful,  therefore,  beginning  life 
as  a  rich  man,  that  he  ended  it  as  a  poor  one. 
Yet  so  perfectly  upright  was  his  nature,  that 
never  did  the  slightest  blame  or  suspicion  attach 
to  him  among  so  many  failures;  and  every  time 
that  he  discovered  afresh  the  imperfections  of 
commercial  humanity,  it  seemed  to  come  upon 
him  as  a  surprise. 

In  the  city  of  Mexico,  where  business  men 
are  —  business  men,  he  was  respected  univer- 
sally, and  by  the  Indians  he  was  adored.  "  He 
is  a  good  man,  Jebb, "  said  an  honourable  old 
Jewish  trader  of  that  city  to  me, — "a  man 
among  a  thousand,  whom  I  would  trust  anywhere. 
See,  I  will  prove  it  to  you,  Amigo  ;  he  has  lived 
in  this  town  doing  business  for  years,  yet,  with 
all  his  opportunities,  he  leaves  it  poorer  tJian  lie 
came  here.  Did  you  ever  hear 'the  like  of  that, 
Amigo?" 

And  so  it  came  about  that  John  Gladwvn 
Jebb  left  both  Mexico  and  this  land,  where  we 
have  "no  abiding  city,"  almost  as  naked  of  the 
world's  goods  as  when  he  entered  it.  He  was 
not  suited  to  the  life  that  fell  to  his  lot,  at  least 
not  to  the  commercial  side  of  it,  for  an  adven- 


xxiv  Introduction. 

turer  —  using  the  term  in  its  best  sense  —  he 
must  always  have  been.  He  was  too  sanguine, 
too  romantic,  too  easily  deluded  by  others,  and 
too  mystical  —  a  curious  vein  of  mysticism  was 
one  of  his  most  striking  characteristics  —  for 
this  nineteenth  century.  As  a  crusader,  or  as  a 
knight-errant,  doubtless  he  would  have  been  a 
brilliant  success,  but  as  a  manager  of  compa- 
nies and  a  director  of  business  matters  it  must 
be  confessed  that  he  was  a  failure. 

Would  that  there  existed  more  of  such  noble 
failures  —  the  ignoble  are  sufficiently  abundant 
—  for  then  the  world  might  be  cleaner  than  it 
is.  It  matters  little  now:  his  day  is  done,  and 
he  has  journeyed  to  that  wonderful  Hereafter 
of  which  during  life  he  had  so  clear  a  vision, 
and  that  was  so  often  the  subject  of  his  delight- 
ful and  suggestive  talk.  But  his  record  remains, 
the  record  of  a  brave  and  generous  man  who,  as 
I  firmly  believe,  never  did,  never  even  contem- 
plated, a  mean  or  a  doubtful  act. 

To  those  who  knew  him  and  have  lost  sight 
of  him  there  remain  also  a  bright  and  chival- 
rous example  and  the  memory  of  a  most  perfect 
gentleman. 

H.    RIDER    HAGGARD. 

DlTCHlNGHAM,  21  st  August,  1894. 


A  STRANGE   CAREER. 


CHAPTER   I. 

BOYHOOD,  AND  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  ARMY. 

JACK  JEBB'S  PARENTAGE EARLY  LIFE  AT  WALTON  —  EDUCA- 
TION AT  BONN  AND  AT  CHESTERFIELD  —  HOLIDAYS  AT  FIR- 
BECK —  HIS  DARING  AND  LOVE  OF  MISCHIEF  —  AT  SCHOOL 
AT  CHELTENHAM — FAVOURITE  STUDIES  —  AN  ADVENTURE 
AT     LECKHAMPTON  —  SENT    TO    AN    ARMY     COACH  —  ENTERS 

WOOLWICH  —  GAZETTED     TO     THE     88TH     REGIMENT  HIS 

MOTHER'S  DEATH  —  HAS    A    PREMONITION    OF    THE    EVENT 

THE    LAST    TIE     GONE SAILS     TO    JOIN    HIS    REGIMENT     IN 

INDIA. 

In  telling  the  life  story  of  a  real  or  a  fictitious 
personage,  it  is  usual  to  start  at  the  beginning 
and  plod  on  more  or  less  steadily,  until  at  the 
last  "  Finis  "  can  be  added  to  the  adventures  or 
the  days  of  the  hero.  But  there  are  times  when 
the  chronicler  feels  that  it  would  be  easier  to 
begin  at  the  end  —  when  the  character  has  at- 
tained to  all  that  it  ever  will  of  good  and  of 
evil,  and  when  we  can  see  by  what  strange 
chances  and  weary  paths  it  came  to  its  maturity. 
i 


2       Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

As  this  book  is  intended,  however,  to  be  a 
sketch  of  many  adventures  in  distant  lands 
rather  than  of  the  manly  and  loyal  nature  of 
him  who  underwent  them,  it  shall  follow  the 
orthodox  course. 

There  are  many  disadvantages  about  being  an 
only  child ;  and  if  there  are  any  corresponding 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  that  fact,  the  subject 
of  this  memoir,  John  Beveridge  Gladwyn  Jebb, 
never  profited  by  them.  Born  in  1841,  when 
both  his  parents  had  passed  their  first  youth,  he 
was  naturally  regarded  by  them  as  a  sort  of  Koh- 
i-noor,  a  roc's  egg,  or  something  equally  rare 
and  priceless.  They  agreed  in  doing  their  best 
to  spoil  him;  but  unfortunately  they  held  di- 
ametrically opposite  views  as  to  the  best  way 
of  performing  the  operation. 

There  is  no  need  to  go  further  back  in  the 
annals  of  the  Jebb  family  history  than  to  the 
time  of  John's  grandfather,  himself  an  only  son, 
who  at  one  time  possessed  considerable  property 
both  in  England  and  in  the  West  Indies,  but 
who,  through  various  mischances,  died  a  com- 
paratively poor  man.  The  small  estate  of  Wal- 
ton, Derbyshire,  was  entailed  on  his  eldest  son, 
Sir  Joshua  Jebb,  K.C.B.,  Director-General  of 
Prisons,  who,  not  wishing  to  live  there,  sold  it  to 


Family  "  Jars."  3 

his  third  brother,  the  Rev.  John  Beveridge  Jebb, 
who,  since  his  marriage  in  1839  with  Charlotte, 
eldest  daughter  of  Mr  Richard  Dann  of  Water- 
mouth,  Devon,  had  lived  at  Walton  with  his 
father  until  the  death  of  the  latter  in  1845. 
The  Rev.  J.  B.  Jebb,  who  held  the  living  of 
Walton  together  with  that  of  Brampton,  Chester- 
field, was  a  person  decidedly  above  the  average 
in  ability.  The  same  may  be  said  of  his  wife. 
Moreover,  the  couple  had  this  in  common,  that 
they  both  held  strong  and  settled  opinions  on 
life,  religion,  and  other  leading  questions. 

For  the  first  few  years  of  marriage  they  were 
strongly  attached  to  each  other,  though  there 
arose  between  them  the  usual-  amount  of  oc- 
casional "jars";  but  unfortunately  the  "jars" 
multiplied  and  the  affection  diminished  as  time 
went  by.  It  was  a  case  of  misunderstanding; 
for  there  was  no  deep  root  of  bitterness  in 
either.  The  fortune  was  chiefly  on  the  side  of 
Mrs  Jebb,  who  had  given  her  husband  absolute 
power  over  it,  and  he  was  not  sufficiently  mind- 
ful of  the  generosity  she  had  shown.  This  cir- 
cumstance is  only  touched  upon  because  of  its 
effect  upon  the  training  and  character  of  the  son. 

The  one  thing  in  which  there  was  perfect 
accord    between    husband    and    wife    was    their 


4       Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

intense  love  for  the  lad,  who  very  early  showed 
signs  of  a  strong  and  original  character.  Cousins 
much  older  than  himself,  who  remember  "  Jack  " 
(as  from  boyhood  he  insisted  on  being  called) 
in  the  arms  of  his  tall,  gaunt,  faithful  nurse, 
talk  of  his  dark  eyes,  even  then  intent  and 
searching.  At  that  early  age  they  say  his  powers 
of  observation  were  remarkable,  and  that  he 
would  ask  questions  and  make  remarks  with  an 
intelligence  beyond  his  years.  They  tell  a  story 
of  his  escaping  from  the  faithful  one  into  the 
farmyard,  when  he  was  two  years  old,  and 
being  shortly  discovered  holding  on  with  both 
hands  to  the  throat  of  a  half-strangled  gander 
which  had  flown  at  him.  As  he  had  no  com- 
panions, it  was  fortunate  for  him  that  he  was 
not  at  all  a  gregarious  child :  indeed,  from  the 
time  he  could  run  alone,  his  chief  joy  was  to  get 
away  from  every  one,  and  hiding  in  the  woods, 
to  play  at  being  a  solitary  Red  Indian  by  his 
camp  fire. 

In  1 850,  at  the  early  age  of  nine,  he  was  sent  to 
a  private  school  at  Bonn,  where  he  picked  up  the 
German  language  and  the  noble  art  of  fisticuffs 
at  one  and  the  same  time.  He  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  the  youngest  pupil  in  the  school,  and  there- 
fore never  got  a  boy  of  his  own  size  to  fight;  but 


School  Experiences.  5 

probably  that  was  good  training,  for  before  he 
left  he  could  "  lick  "  half  the  school.  Everything 
had  to  be  fought  for,  and  the  weakest,  as  usual, 
went  to  the  wall  ;  so  for  the  first  few  months 
poor  little  Jack  Jebb  had  a  very  rough  time. 
All  letters  were  read  by  the  master  before  being 
sent,  so  he  could  not  complain  to  those  at  home 
of  the  insufficient  food  and  bed-clothing,  which 
the  tenderly-cared-for  boy  suffered  from  greatly. 
The  school  had  been  highly  recommended  to  his 
parents,  who  believed  they  were  doing  the  best 
thing  possible  for  their  son,  while  they  travelled 
about  the  Continent  for  the  benefit  of  his  father's 
health,  which  was  never  good. 

However,  in  spite  of  occasional  hunger  and  con- 
tinuous black  eyes,  Jack  fought  his  way  to  the 
top  of  the  school  and  to  the  mature  age  of  eleven, 
when  he  was  taken  home  and  delivered  over  to  a 
clergyman  at  Chesterfield  —  a  clever  man  and  a 
very  good  fellow — for  the  continuance  of  his 
education.  He  was  glad  enough  of  the  change, 
for  in  time  fighting  will  pall  even  upon  a  boy 
if  he  only  gets  enough  of  it,  and  that  had  been 
the  one  thing  of  which  there  was  a  plentiful 
supply  at  the  German  school. 

Moreover,  he  now  spent  a  good  part  of  his  holi- 
days with  his  aunt,  Mrs  Miles,  a  wealthy  widow, 


6       Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

then  living  at  Clifton,  but  who  shortly  afterwards 
bought  a  lovely  old  place  in  Yorkshire,  where  the 
harum-scarum  boy  was  allowed  to  run  as  wild  as 
he  liked.  Usually  there  were  a  dozen  or  more 
young  cousins  all  stopping  there  together.  Their 
ages  ranged  from  twelve  to  eighteen,  and  they 
were  ripe  for  any  sort  of  mischief  into  which  Jack 
—  generally  the  ruling  spirit — would  lead  them. 
Those  who  were  not  admitted  to  late  dinner  used 
to  hang  about  the  dining-room  door,  coaxing 
the  old  butler  out  of  such  dishes  as  looked 
tempting  and  he  could  be  induced  to  give  to 
them.  They  also  coaxed  him  out  of  a  good 
deal  of  "language"  once.  It  happened  this  way. 
A  large  dinner-party  was  to  take  place  —  a  typi- 
cal county  solemnity  —  and  the  old  butler,  of 
course,  felt  himself  to  be  the  pivot  on  which 
everything  turned  ;  so  until  about  five  minutes 
before  the  first  arrival  was  expected,  he  fussed 
and  fidgeted,  ordered  and  reproved,  in  the  din- 
ing-room, and  then  betook  himself  to  his  bed- 
room for  a  last  review  of  his  own  irreproachable 
appearance.  No  sooner  was  he  inside  the  room 
than  the  key  was  turned  in  the  lock  by  his  natural 
enemies,  the  "young  gentlemen,"  who  adjured  him 
(through  the  keyhole)  to  keep  calm  !  But  when 
he  heard  the  first  carriage  drive  up  the  strength 


At  Firbcck.  7 

of  his  feelings  became  too  much  for  his  respect- 
ability, and  his  language  was  "  frequent  and  pain- 
ful and  free."  They  kept  him  there  until  he 
began  to  show  signs  of  being  about  to  break 
down  the  door,  with  some  of  the  family  plate  as  a 
battering-ram,  when  they  hastily  unlocked  it  and 
fled.  He  had  not  time  to  settle  matters  with  his 
persecutors  then,  but  he  got  even  eventually  by 
means  of  some  peculiarly  cheap  and  nasty  sherry, 
which  he  ever  afterwards  declared  was  the  only 
wine  he  was  allowed  to  give  them  !  Another 
delight  in  Jack's  frequent  visits  to  Firbeck  was 
the  capital  hunting  to  be  got  with  Lord  Galway's 
pack ;  and  probably  some  of  the  happiest  mo- 
ments of  his  life  were  when,  "  well  up  "  on  his 
little  brown  mare,  there  was  a  good  scent,  and  he 
could  follow  the  hounds  over  fences  and  ditches 
through  some  of  the  loveliest  country  to  be  found 
in  England.  When  at  home  at  Walton  his  life 
was  much  quieter  and  duller,  which  may  account 
for  the  fact  that,  with  all  his  hardihood  and  sense 
of  humour,  there  was  throughout  his  career  an 
under-current  of  melancholy  and  fatalism. 

At  about  fourteen  he  was  thought  to  be  ready 
for  a  public  school,  and  after  a  few  months  on  the 
Continent  with  his  father  and  tutor,  he  was  sent 
to  Cheltenham.     His  own  desire,  like  that  of  most 


8       Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

boys  at  some  period  of  their  lives,  was  to  go  to 
sea.  With  Jack  Jebb  the  wish  was  no  light  o' 
love,' but  the  passion  of  his  life;  and  long  years 
afterwards,  whether  lying  on  a  moonlit  deck  half 
the  night  listening  to  the  swish  of  the  waves  and 
watching  the  tropical  stars,  or  helping  to  throw 
cargo  overboard  to  lighten  a  labouring  ship  in  an 
angry  sea,  he  had  the  misery  of  feeling  that  here 
was  his  vocation  and  he  had  missed  it !  At  Chel- 
tenham he  distinguished  himself  chiefly  by  his 
drawing  and  painting,  which  were  so  much  above 
the  average  that  it  was  said  of  him  later  by  an 
authority  on  the  subject,  that  if  he  did  not  make 
his  fortune  on  the  operatic  stage  by  means  of  his 
beautiful  voice,  he  ought  to  make  it  as  an  artist. 
I  regret  to  say  that  while  at  Cheltenham  he  was 
also  distinguished  for  being  the  head  and  front  of 
any  mischief  that  might  be  on  foot,  as  when  once 
he  went  off  to  Leckhampton  with  a  couple  more 
boys,  for  the  purpose  of  pistol-practice,  well 
knowing  that  the  owner  of  Leckhampton  Hill 
strongly  objected  to  his  lands  being  made  the 
happy  hunting-ground  of  a  lot  of  schoolboys, 
and  that  he  had  ordered  his  workmen  to  capture 
and  consign  to  the  authorities  any  college  youth 
who  might  be  found  upon  them.  Of  course 
this  gave  a  charm  to  the  proceedings,  and  the 


Firing  the  Gorse.  9 

lads  shot  gaily  all  one  afternoon,  smoking  the 
while — they  didn't  like  it,  but  thought  it  the 
thing  to  do  —  and  never  noticed  that  they  were 
being  "  stalked  "  by  a  party  of  workmen,  who 
had  divided  themselves  into  groups  and  were 
surrounding  the  boys  on  three  sides  of  the  hill, 
the  fourth  being  occupied  by  a  stone  quarry, 
almost  impassable,  and  therefore  considered  safe. 
When  the  boys  first  caught  sight  of  the  men, 
they  were  not  more  than  200  yards  off,  and 
there  was  very  little  time  left  for  reflection.  "  I 
have  it,"  said  Jack.  "Let  us  divide  and  fire  the 
gorse  in  a  line.  The  wind  is  blowing  away  from 
the  quarry  and  towards  the  men.  They  won't 
be  able  to  follow  us  through  the  smoke,  and 
we  must  scramble  down  the  quarry  somehow." 
This  brilliant  idea  was  acted  upon,  and  they 
got  out  of  the  quarry  in  safety,  dodging  a 
gamekeeper  by  the  way,  and  lighting  a  fire 
along  the  foot  of  the  hill,  which  effectually  kept 
the  pursuers  in  check  for  an  hour  —  long  enough 
for  the  incendiaries  to  walk  calmly  home,  glowing 
with  the  consciousness  of  a  well-spent  afternoon. 
Tricks  of  this  sort  at  school,  and  similar  pro- 
ceedings at  home,  soon  gave  Jack  the  reputation 
of  being  about  as  reckless  and  unmanageable  as 
even  a  schoolboy  could  be.     Therefore,  when  on 


io     Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

his  sixteenth  birthday  his  father  invited  a  party 
of  friends  and  relations,  and  semi-publicly  pre- 
sented him  with  a  gun,  saying  in  the  course  of 
his  speech  that  his  son  had  never  caused  him 
a  moment's  anxiety  in  his  life,  a  subdued  titter 
ran  through  the  audience,  who  knew  well  that 
there  were  very  few  moments  of  the  reverend 
speaker's  existence  which  were  ?/;ztroubled  by 
anxiety  as  to  what  his  young  scapegrace  might 
be  doing  next !  However,  when  Jack  left  Chel- 
tenham, he  did  so  with  the  assurance  of  his 
house-master  that  he  was  a  "  noble  and  truthful 
boy "  ;  and  well  knowing  that  to  be  the  fact, 
his  parents  could  afford  to  forgive  him  a  few 
"  mistakes  of  youth." 

After  leaving  Cheltenham  he  was  sent  to  an 
army  coach  at  Putney,  to  be  crammed  for  Wool- 
wich, in  spite  of  his  decided  preference  for  the 
sister  service.  As  may  be  imagined,  a  healthy 
active  boy,  with  a  hatred  of  town  life  and  no 
love  for  his  future  profession,  did  not  take  very 
kindly  to  the  coach  and  his  methods,  especially 
as  the  latter  were  very  autocratic.  But  a  little  in- 
cident soon  occurred  which  had  the  effect  of  caus- 
ing the  tutor  to  relax  his  rules  considerably.  At 
that  time  Cremorne  was  in  full  swing,  and  Leotard 
was  drawing  crowds  nightly.     Of  course  the  half- 


Inside  Crcmornc.  1 1 

dozen  lads  engaged  in  cramming  at  Putney  were 
wild  to  see  him,  though  they  had  little  hope  of 
obtaining  leave  to  do  so.  However,  there  was  no 
harm  in  trying;  so  one  day,  with  young  Jebb  as 
spokesman,  they  went  in  a  body  to  their  master 
and  begged  for  the  embargo  to  be  taken  off  Cre- 
morne,  if  only  for  one  night.  They  were  met  by 
a  stern  refusal,  and  the  assurance  that  the  master 
himself  would  not  dream  of  visiting  such  a  sink 
of  iniquity. 

Having  been  refused  leave,  naturally  their  next 
idea  was  how  to  get  there  without  it ;  and  they 
adopted  the  simple  and  obvious  plan,  to  a  boy,  of 
climbing  out  of  a  bedroom  window,  sliding  down 
the  drain-pipe,  and  trusting  to  a  rope  and  each 
other's  shoulders  for  getting  back  again.  This 
was  all  very  well  as  far  as  it  went ;  but  a  contre- 
temps they  had  not  counted  on  was  that,  just  in- 
side the  gates  of  Cremorne,  they  almost  ran  into 
the  arms  of  their  tutor  himself!  But  Providence 
was  kind  to  them  even  at  that  awful  moment, 
for  before  they  could  begin  to  stammer  out  ex- 
cuses the  coach  said  hurriedly,  "  You  had  better 
not  mention  to  my  wife  that  we  met  here,  as  she 
does  not  approve  of  Cremorne,  and  I  only  came 
to  see  Leotard." 

"  That's  all  we  came  for,  sir,"  replied  the  boys, 


12     Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

departing  promptly  before  their  master  recovered 
sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  send  them  home. 

Whether  the  memory  of  his  previous  diatribe 
or  the  fear  of  his  better-half  lay  heaviest  on  his 
soul  I  don't  know,  but  the  boys  never  heard 
another  word  of  their  adventure.  They  loyally 
held  their  peace  to  the  lady,  and  her  lord  made 
their  yoke  a  little  lighter. 

After  about  a  year  of  fortifications,  mathe- 
matics, and  similar  joys  at  Putney,  Jack  went  to 
Woolwich.  When  the  examinations  came  off,  he 
passed  well  in  most  subjects,  but  was  plucked 
for  mixed  mathematics,  and  had  gone  home  to 
perfect  himself  in  this  science,  when  he  received 
a  notice  from  the  War  Office  informing  him  that, 
as  he  was  proficient  in  the  other  branches,  and 
had  only  failed  in  one,  he  might  be  gazetted  at 
once  for  service  in  India,  if  he  chose. 

At  that  time  so  many  officers  had  been  killed 
and  wounded  in  the  terrible  retribution  which 
followed  the  Mutiny,  that  the  War  Office  de- 
cided on  sending  out  all  cadets  who  had  gained 
a  certain  number  of  marks.  Jack  Jebb  caught 
eagerly  at  the  chance.  With  his  adventurous 
roving  spirit,  the  one  thing  which  could  content 
him  with  the  profession  he  had  been  obliged  to 
adopt  was  the  hope  of  active  service.     He  was 


Death  of  Mrs  Jebb.  13 

gazetted  to  the  88th  Regiment,  then  under  or- 
ders to  sail  almost  immediately;  and  but  for  the 
anxiety  which  his  mother's  health  was  causing, 
he  would  have  been  very  glad  to  start. 

Mrs  Jebb  had  been  ailing  for  some  time,  and 
had  been  moved  to  London  in  order  to  be  with- 
in reach  of  the  best  advice.  The  natures  of  father 
and  son  were  too  diametrically  opposed  for  them 
to  find  much  in  common  with  each  other  as  the 
lad  grew  to  manhood,  but  between  his  mother 
and  himself  there  always  existed  the  strongest 
sympathy  and  devotion,  so  that  they  both  felt 
that  when  the  parting  came  it  would  be  very 
bitter.  But  it  was  not  to  be  as  they  expected. 
Shortly  before  sailing  Jack  was  dining  with  some 
cousins,  when  in  the  middle  of  dinner  he  started 
up  suddenly  from  the  table  with  a  white  face, 
saying,  "  My  mother  is  dying!  "  Of  course  his 
cousins  tried  to  persuade  him  that  if  his  mother 
were  worse  he  would  certainly  have  heard  of  it; 
but  he  persisted  that  he  was  right,  and  with  a 
heavy  heart  started  home  immediately,  only  to 
be  met  on  the  threshold  with  the  news  of  Mrs 
Jebb's  death.  She  had  been  seized  quite  sud- 
denly, and  had  died  with  her  eyes  fixed  in  a  long 
last  look  on  that  portrait  of  her  only  son,  which 
stood  always  by  her  bedside.     In  what  strange 


14     Boyhood,  and  Entrance  into  the  Army. 

fashion  her  latest  thought  and  yearning  had 
communicated  itself  to  him,  who  shall  say  ?  If 
it  be  true  that  a  man's  last  thought  and  cry, 
when  his  life  is  going  out,  is  for  her  who  cared 
for  his  earliest  years,  how  much  more  likely  is  it 
that  the  supreme  enduring  mother-love  should 
be  able  to  conquer  space  and  circumstance  that 
it  may  take  farewell  of  its  beloved  ! 

Jack's  grief  was  silent  and  deep.  He  felt  that 
now  he  had  little  to  regret  in  leaving  the  empty 
home ;  and  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  sail 
to  join  his  regiment,  he  probably  left  fewer  living 
memories  behind  than  most  of  those  with  whom 
he  voyaged  to  distant  lands. 


CHAPTER   II. 

INDIAN    SERVICE. 

THE  ROUTE  TO  INDIA  THIRTY  YEARS  AGO  —  FLIRTATION  ON 
BOARD  SHIP  —  JACK  JEBB'S  JOURNEY  —  A  HYPNOTIC  EX- 
PERIMENT  REGIMENTAL  DUTIES  A  MIDNIGHT  ENCOUN- 
TER   WITH    A     NATIVE  —  THREE     YEARS    OF    HARD   WORK 

DOWN    WITH     FEVER AN     ACRIMONIOUS     NATIVE    OFFICIAL 

INDOMITABLE     BRITISH     PLUCK  A      NIGHT'S     IMPRISON- 
MENT  A    COURT    SCENE RECRUITING    STRENGTH    ON    THE 

HILLS. 

In  those  days  a  voyage  was  a  voyage,  and  took 
time.  Thirty  years  ago  people  were  not  so  much 
given  to  "  running  across  "  a  few  thousand  miles 
of  land  and  ocean  on  the  smallest  possible  ex- 
cuse. They  did  their  travelling  slowly  and  with 
much  forethought,  and  if  any  of  them  suffered 
from  the  restlessness  of  this  generation,  they 
usually  concealed  it  in  a  shamefaced  way,  as 
they  might  have  hidden  a  tendency  to  shirk 
afternoon  church  in  the  dog-days.  There  is  no 
need  to  describe  the  journey  to  India,  because 
most  people  have  taken  it,  and  know  all  about 
the  heat  and  the  gossip,  the  cliques  and  the  flir- 


1 6  Indian  Service. 

tations,  on  every  P.  and  0.  that  sails  the  seas. 
Sometimes  those  same  flirtations  end  in  love  and 
a  cottage  for  two,  but  more  often  the  result  is 
unpleasantness  for  somebody. 

There  was  once  a  girl  who  was  going  out  to 
be  married,  and  who  confided  to  about  ten 
people  (by  moonlight)  that  she  adored  the  man 
she  was  engaged  to.  Unfortunately  for  him, 
her  adoration  was  unable  to  stand  the  test  of  a 
shadowy  deck-corner  in  the  tropics,  and  the  in- 
sidious advances  of  the  ship's  doctor,  who  ap- 
peared to  consider  that  the  most  important  of 
his  duties  was  to  make  love  to  the  prettiest  girl 
aboard,  and  who  had  a  nice  little  wife  at  home 
who  understood  his  weaknesses  and  did  not  mind 
them  in  the  least.  Well,  this  particular  girl,  not 
understanding  the  rules  of  the  game,  took  it  all 
in  dead  earnest,  and  when  land  and  her  fiance" 
appeared,  his  entreaties  and  arguments  notwith- 
standing, she  refused  to  quit  the  ship  without 
the  doctor,  who  meanwhile  had  fled  to  his  cabin, 
from  which  sanctuary  he  refused  to  emerge  until 
his  would-be  abductress  had  gone.  Eventually 
the  girl  was  taken  below  and  matters  were  ex- 
plained to  her  by  several  matrons  (assisted  by  a 
damp  towel),  so  that  she  finally  consented  to  be 
led  away  by  the    unhappy  being   who   was   to 


Incident  on  Board  Ship.  \y 

have  charge  of  her  affections  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  One  wonders  how  they  settled  it,  and 
whether  in  their  matrimonial  bickerings  the 
mention  of  that  voyage  ever  failed  to  reduce 
her  to  a  pulpy  silence  ! 

On  the  ship  which  was  bearing  Jack  Jebb  to  his 
new  duties  only  one  incident  occurred  to  break  the 
monotony  of  the  voyage.  There  was  a  pretty  but 
rather  "  loud  "  looking  woman  on  board,  who  gave 
herself  out  to  be  the  wife  of  a  high  official  "  up 
country."  Several  passengers  knew  of  the  man, 
but  had  never  heard  that  he  had  a  wife  ;  and  this 
fact,  together  with  her  manner  and  appearance, 
surrounded  her  with  a  slight  air  of  mystery, 
though,  as  she  was  decidedly  amusing,  no  one 
hesitated  about  making  acquaintance  with  her, 
until  a  curious  event  brought  about  a  change. 
Late  one  evening  conversation  in  the  reading- 
room  turned  on  mesmerism,  and  Mrs  B.  re- 
marked that  she  made  a  capital  subject,  although 
she  had  no  power  over  other  people.  Whereupon 
Jack,  knowing  a  little  of  the  art,  and  being  greatly 
interested  in  it,  offered  to  try  to  send  her  into  a 
trance.  The  lady  was  quite  willing  to  be  experi- 
mented upon,  and  a  group  of  spectators  gathered 
round  to  watch  the  "passes,"  which  soon  had  the 
effect  of  sending  her  into  a  deep  sleep. 

2 


1 8  Indian  Service. 

Directly  she  became  unconscious  she  began  to 
talk,  and  it  was  soon  evident  that  she  was  em- 
barking on  a  narrative  of  her  past  history,  which 
seemed  to  have  been  varied,  to  say  the  least  of 
it  !  "  We  must  wake  her  before  she  goes  any 
further,"  said  Jack;  but  this  was  not  easy,  for 
nothing  that  any  of  them  could  do  had  the 
slightest  effect  upon  her,  and  her  even,  monoto- 
nous voice  went  on  ceaselessly.  And  the  tale 
that  she  told  was  such,  that  first  the  chaperons 
sent  their  young  people  off  to  bed,  and  next 
they  themselves  fled  before  that  terrible  truthful 
voice,  until  only  a  few  men  were  left  in  the  room. 
They  also  got  tired  of  it  at  last,  as  hour  after 
hour  went  past  and  there  seemed  to  be  no 
chance  of  Mrs  B.'s  awaking,  and  one  by  one 
they  dropped  off,  until  only  Jack  and  another 
man  were  left.  Towards  2  A.  M.  the  latter  showed 
signs  of  departure  also,  but  Jack  put  his  back 
against  the  door  and  said,  "No;  you  have  got 
to  stop  with  me  in  this  room  until  she  wakes,  in 
order  to  see  fair-play,  and  we  must  each  give 
our  word  of  honour  never  to  repeat  what  this 
woman  is  unconsciously  revealing." 

The  man,  a  young  civilian,  agreed,  and  they 
both  sat  down  again,  while  that  changeless  voice 
continued   its   tale.     It  told    them   some  things 


Effect  of  Hypnotism.  19 

which  they  knew  and  many  which  they  did  not. 
It  also  made  them  acquainted  with  a  little  plot 
against  the  peace  (and  purse)  of  the  high  official 
whose  wife  the  sleeping  lady  was  supposed  to  be. 
It  went  on  until  about  3  a.m.,  when  she  moved, 
yawned,  and  remarked,  "  I  declare,  I  must  have 
had  a  doze !  everybody  seems  to  be  gone  to 
bed.  What  time  is  it,  gentlemen?  "  Then  the 
two  men  lied,  as  they  were  bound  to  do,  and  she 
went  off  to  her  cabin  quite  happy,  never  to  the 
end  of  the  voyage  having  the  least  glimmering 
as  to  why  the  dowagers  picked  up  their  skirts 
and  fled  before  her  as  from  a  plague  !  She  pro- 
bably attributed  it  to  jealousy.  How  her  plot 
against  the  high  official  fared  no  one  ever  dis- 
covered ;  but  Mrs  B.  would  certainly  not  have 
been  mesmerised  again  had  she  known  the  effect 
of  hypnotism  on  a  tongue  which  perhaps  never 
spoke  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  on  any 
other    occasion. 

The  rest  of  the  voyage  was  uneventful  enough. 
Immediately  on  landing  Jack  went  up  country  to 
join  his  regiment  at  a  small  town  with  an  unpro- 
nounceable name,  which  was  suspected  of  being 
a  hotbed  of  mutiny,  and  was  therefore  closely 
watched  and  guarded.  Of  course  by  this  time, 
1 861,  the  mutiny  proper  was  over  and  the  tcr- 


20  Indian  Service. 

rible  punishment  had  been  meted  out.  But  so 
many  officers  had  been  killed,  or  sent  home 
broken  down  in  body  and  mind  by  the  awful 
suffering  they  had  witnessed  and  endured,  that 
those  who  were  left  had  to  perform  double  duty. 
Guard  and  "  sentry  go  "  were  incessant,  and  for 
months  at  a  time  the  officers  of  the  88th  thought 
themselves  lucky  if  they  got  three  clear  hours  in 
the  twenty-four  for  necessary  rest.  Actual  fight- 
ing would  have  been  bliss  compared  with  the  long 
dark  nights  spent  in  creeping  stealthily  round 
from  sentry  to  sentry,  with  the  idea  strongly 
developed  in  the  mind  that  unseen  eyes  were 
watching,  and  that  treacherous  hands  might  be 
waiting  to  do  murder  at  any  moment!  Now 
Jack  Jebb  was  a  broad-shouldered  active  youth 
who  had  never  known  fear  in  his  life  (though 
once  afterwards  he  made  acquaintance  with  it 
when  out  driving  with  a  talkative  friend  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  who  would  gesticulate  wildly 
with  the  reins  in  her  hands,  while  the  hind  wheel 
of  the  dog-cart  was  half  over  the  precipice  !). 
Still,  a  few  months  of  sleeplessness,  overwork, 
and  anxiety  in  a  hot  climate  reduced  his  nerves 
to  such  a  state  of  irritability  and  irresponsibility 
that  he  always  rather  doubted  whether  he  had 
not  committed  a  murder  during  that  time  —  or 
at  least,  justifiable  homicide. 


The  Eighth   Commandment.  21 

Going  quietly  into  his  tent  one  evening,  he 
caught  a  native  in  the  act  of  stealing  a  pistol. 
Of  course  the  man  should  have  been  handed 
over  to  the  authorities  for  punishment;  but  Jack 
preferred  to  settle  the  matter  himself,  and  de- 
voted the  whole  of  his  Hindustanee,  together 
with  his  very  powerful  fists,  to  instilling  a 
knowledge  of  the  eighth  commandment  into  the 
thief.  When  he  considered  that  he  had  accom- 
plished this,  he  gave  the  man  a  parting  kick  and 
sent  him  off.  He  then  turned  into  bed,  to  medi- 
tate on  the  regulation  which  says,  "  On  no  ac- 
count shall  an  officer  strike  a  native." 

After  a  wakeful  hour  or  so,  he  was  just  drop- 
ping off  to  sleep,  when  he  was  roused  in  an  instant 
by  the  uncanny  sensation  which  most  of  us  have 
experienced,  of  some  unseen  presence  being  in 
the  room.  He  had  sufficient  self-control  to  open 
his  eyes  without  moving  in  bed,  and  to  his  hor- 
ror he  saw  something  long  and  black  and  shiny 
within  half  a  yard  of  his  face.  He  immediately 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the  disturber  of 
his  slumbers  must  be  a  snake,  and  that  his  only 
chance  lay  in  being  able  to  draw  the  pistol  from 
under  his  pillow,  and  fire,  before  the  creature 
was  upon  him.  He  held  his  breath  in  the  dead 
silence  of  the  night,  and  groped  noiselessly  for 
his    weapon,    the    stealthy     movements    mean- 


22  Indian  Service. 

while  coming  ever  nearer.  Directly  his  hand 
touched  the  pistol,  he  raised  himself  on  his 
elbow  and  fired  simultaneously.  The  shot  was 
followed  by  a  heavy  groan,  which  certainly 
never  issued  from  the  throat  of  a  snake ;  and 
realising  instantly  that  the  object  he'  had  seen 
must  have  been  the  long  black  arm  of  a  native, 
Jack  sprang  up,  pushed  his  feet  into  slippers, 
and  was  soon  outside.  The  shot  had  roused  a 
few  weary  sleepers,  who  were  readily  satisfied 
with  the  assurance  that  it  was  a  false  alarm,  — 
for,  to  Jack's  surprise,  instead  of  a  defunct  na- 
tive, there  was  absolutely  no  sign  of  his  mid- 
night visitor,  though,  to  judge  from  his  groans, 
the  man  must  have  been  severely  wounded.  A 
further  inspection,  however,  showed  a  large  pool 
of  blood  just  outside  the  tent,  which  testified  to 
the  fact  that  something  had  been  there  recently. 
Jack  now  felt  pretty  certain  that  his  assailant 
was  the  native  who  had  first  tried  to  rob  him, 
and  who  had  now  made  a  futile  attempt  to 
revenge  himself  for  the  pommelling  he  had 
received. 

Another  moment's  drowsiness,  and  in  all 
probability  this  history  would  never  have  been 
written. 

As  soon  as  he  caught  sight  of  the  blood,  Jack 
began  to  follow  the  trail,  anxious  both  to  make 


Mysterious  Disappearance.  23 

sure  of  the  identity  of  his  enemy  and  to  discover 
if  he  was  seriously  hurt.  The  track  was  easily 
followed  to  the  edge  of  the  jungle,  about  half  a 
mile  distant;  but  to  try  to  explore  a  jungle  in 
the  darkness  of  an  Indian  night,  while  lightly 
and  tastefully  clad  in  pyjamas  and  slippers,  was 
a  task  to  which  even  the  depths  of  his  anxiety 
did  not  seriously  incline  him.  So  he  went  back 
to  his  tent,  feeling  rather  chilly,  and  narrowly 
escaping  a  bullet,  from  a  sentry  unaccustomed 
to  see  his  officers  taking  constitutionals  in  the 
dead  of  night  in  that  sort  of  attire. 

Of  course  next  day  Jack  made  inquiries  about 
the  suspected  native,  who  turned  out  to  be  well 
known  as  a  petty  thief;  but  no  one  had  seen 
him  since  the  preceding  afternoon.  And  strange 
to  say,  no  one  ever  did  see  him  !  Whether  he 
was  exhausted  by  loss  of  blood  and  exertion  in 
running  so  fast  and  far,  and  crawled  into  the 
jungle  to  die;  whether  in  his  wounded  condition 
he  was  set  upon  by  wild  beasts  and  killed  ;  or 
whether,  thinking  the  camp  an  unhealthy  place, 
he  simply  decided  not  to  return  to  it,  —  are  things 
which  no  man  knows.  And  his  family  said  it 
was  a  pity;  but  of  course  he  was  a  bad  man, 
and  would  the  sahib  give  them  rupees?  which, 
naturally,  the  sahib  did. 


24  Indian  Service. 

There  is  little  that  is  interesting  to  be  told  of 
the  rest  of  Jack  Jebb's  life  in  India.  He  spent 
three  years  there  —  dreary  years,  when  fever  and 
overwork  alternated  with  each  other,  and  the  only 
scraps  of  enjoyment  to  be  got  out  of  existence 
were  occasional  shooting-parties,  where  he  first 
tasted  the  delight  of  bagging  "  big  game."  He 
had  shot  ever  since  he  knew  which  was  the  kill- 
ing end  of  a  gun,  so  he  was  not  far  behind  even 
the  old  hands,  and  secured  several  good  heads 
and  skins  in  the  course  of  these  expeditions.  But 
eventually  these  delights  were  put  a  stop  to  by 
repeated  attacks  of  fever  developing  what  is  eu- 
phoniously called  "  hobnailed  liver,"  whereby  he 
was  so  pulled  down  that  the  doctor  insisted  on 
his  going  to  the  hills  at  once. 

Leave  for  him  meant  extra  work  for  the  others, 
so  for  some  time  he  refused  to  apply  for  it;  but 
when  it  became  evident  that  he  could  no  longer 
fulfil  his  duty  if  he  stayed,  he  at  last  consented 
to  go.  It  happened  that  at  the  station  from  which 
he  was  to  start  there  ruled  a  native  station-master, 
who,  though  never  actively  engaged  in  the 
mutiny,  was  strongly  suspected  of  having  done  a 
good  deal  in  a  quiet  way  towards  keeping  it  going 
in  his  locality.  Nothing  definite  could  be  proved 
against  him.     Still  it  was  quite  certain  that  this 


A  Recalcitrant  Invalid.  25 

official  loathed  the  English  and  never  missed  an 
opportunity  of  covertly  insulting  any  sick  officer 
leaving  from  his  depot  for  the  hills  ;  while,  in  view 
of  the  tremendous  "  race  "  feeling  engendered 
by  the  mutiny,  the  regulations  most  stringently 
forbade  any  Englishman,  no  matter  what  the  pro- 
vocation, to  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands  in 
the  chastisement  of  a  native.  Jack,  of  course, 
knew  the  man's  reputation,  and  consequently  was 
prepared  to  stand  some  "  cheek"  from  him. 

By  clinging  to  his  post  long  after  he  was  unfit 
to  do  his  work,  the  invalid  was  so  reduced  that 
he  had  to  be  carried  to  the  station  in  a  litter,  and 
doubtless  he  looked  so  ill  that  this  native  bully 
thought  him  a  perfectly  safe  victim.  Accordingly 
he  began  to  make  unpleasant  remarks  about  the 
sick  officer  to  his  subordinates,  speaking  in  a 
voice  intended  to  reach  the  ear  of  the  sufferer  as 
he  lay  in  his  litter  waiting  for  the  train  to  be  sig- 
nalled. Jack  set  his  teeth  hard  and  besought  his 
gods  to  lend  him  patience.  As  he  made  no  sign, 
the  station-master  felt  quite  secure,  and  ventured 
a  little  further  than  he  had  ever  gone  before  — 
just  a  shade  too  far  for  his  own  health ;  for  rage 
giving  him  back  his  lost  strength,  Jack  sprang 
from  the  litter  and  "went  for"  the  surprised 
native  in  a  thoroughly  practical,  scientific  manner. 
Every  blow  was  followed  by  a    corresponding 


26  Indian  Service. 

bulge  on  the  station-master's  fat  body,  as  he 
doubled  up  on  all-fours  and  abjectly  entreated 
the  sahib  not  to  kill   him  ! 

The  sahib  graciously  consented  not  to  do  so, 
especially  as  he  felt  on  the  verge  of  fainting  him- 
self. So  he  gave  the  man  leave  to  get  up,  and 
crawled  back  to  his  litter  more  dead  than  alive, 
but  with  the  joy  of  a  virtuous  action  animating 
his  soul.  The  station-master  began  to  collect 
his  own  remains,  wondering  meanwhile  how  to 
be  revenged.  He  soon  thought  of  a  plan,  and 
going  over  to  the  litter,  informed  his  enemy  that 
he  would  not  be  allowed  to  proceed  by  the  train 
then  due,  but  would  be  sent  to  the  station-house, 
there  to  await  his  trial  next  day  for  assaulting  a 
native.  Now  Jack  was  anxious  to  get  off  to  the 
hills,  and  felt,  moreover,  that  the  native  had  had 
the  worst  of  it  so  far ;  so  he  offered  him  Rs.  20 
as  a  salve  for  his  bruises,  if  he  would  say  no  more 
about  the  matter,  and  keep  a  civil  tongue  in  his 
head  for  the  future. 

"  I  will  take  Rs.  200  and  not  an  anna  less," 
said  the  man. 

"  Then  you  may  go  and  be  hanged,"  replied 
Jack,  "  for  you  won't  get  it  from  me." 

Well,  the  police  arrived,  and,  sure  enough,  he 
was  marched  off  to  durance  vile.  Now  it  may 
be    imagined   that   a  night  in    a  close,  hot  cell, 


///  Court.  27 

with  no  sort  of  refreshment  for  his  body,  and 
a  cheerful  prospect  of  being  "  broke  "  occupying 
his  mind,  had  anything  but  a  good  effect  on  the 
health  and  appearance  of  a  man  already  down 
with  fever. 

So  it  came  about  that  when  he  was  carried 
into  court  next  morning,  the  presiding  magis- 
trate smiled  visibly  on  being  told  that  it  was  the 
emaciated  invalid  in  the  litter  who  had  over- 
night produced  the  awful  wreck  of  humanity  to 
be  seen  in  the  witness-box.  For  in  order  to 
produce  a  better  effect,  the  station-master  had 
allowed  the  blood  to  dry  on  his  cheeks,  and  with 
one  eye  closed  and  dirty  scraps  of  sticking- 
plaster  artistically  arranged  over  the  other,  he 
looked  a  very  ill-used  native  indeed.  He  said, 
and  had  twenty  witnesses  to  prove,  that  the 
sahib  had  flown  at  him  like  a  tiger  while  he  was 
simply  doing  his  duty  and  trying  to  make  his 
passengers  comfortable,  and  that,  not  content 
with  nearly  shaking  the  breath  out  of  his  body, 
he  had  deprived  him  of  his  eyesight,  as  my  lord, 
the  judge,  could  see. 

The  judge  listened  to  this  moving  tale,  and  he 
also  listened  to  the  witnesses.  Then  he  heard 
what  Jack  had  to  say  for  himself,  and  also  some 
details  added  by  several  Europeans  who  knew. 


28  Indian  Service. 

Then  he  said,  "  You  can  pay  this  native  Rs.  5  for 
a  doctor's  bill,  also  you  can  pay  costs,  and  then 
I  should  recommend  you  to  take  the  next  train 
for  the  hills."  Jack  fully  expected  to  have  to 
pay  about  Rs.  500  and  get  cashiered  into  the 
bargain,  so  his  joy  on  hearing  these  words  of 
wisdom  may  be  imagined.  As  for  the  station- 
master  !  He  had  refused  Rs.  20  down  in  the 
hope  of  getting  200,  and  now  he  was  to  have  Rs. 
5  and  his  enemy  was  to  go  free !  He  went 
home,  washed  off  his  war-paint,  and  made  him- 
self look  like  a  human  being  again,  the  while  he 
talked  to  himself  softly  and  fluently.  He  ceased 
to  talk  aloud,  though,  from  that  day  forth,  and 
never  again  insulted  an  invalid  officer.  It 
didn't  seem  so  safe  as  he  had  thought !  Jack 
Jebb  got  to  the  hills  at  last,  picked  up  health 
and  strength  rapidly,  and  was  soon  ready  for 
duty  again.  But  the  oddest  part  of  the  story 
is,  that  years  afterwards  in  Honduras  he  met  a 
stray  Englishman,  who  in  the  course  of  conver- 
sation began  to  tell  him  the  foregoing  story,  but 
stopped  abruptly  when  he  saw  his  companion 
shaking  with  laughter. 

"Why,  have  you  heard  it  before?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  am  the  man  !  "  was  the  reply. 


CHAPTER   III. 

BUSINESS   DISASTERS. 

RE-MARRIAGE  OF  REV.  MR  JEBB —  JACK  JEBB  RETURNS  TO 
ENGLAND  —  COMPLICATED  BUSINESS  AFFAIRS  —  RESIGNS 
HIS  COMMISSION  —  AT  OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  —  SOCIETY, 
ATHLETICS,  AND  READING  —  AN  ODD  APPARITION  — GOES 
ON  A  SHOOTING  TOUR  TO  SKYE  — A  COMFORTABLE  IN- 
COME   DETERMINES     TO     SPECULATE A     PARTNER     IN     A 

GLASGOW  STEEL  GUN-BARREL  FACTORY  —  AN  UNFORTU- 
NATE STRIKE  — £23,000  LOST  IN  A  YEAR  —  BELATED  GOV- 
ERNMENT      ORDERS  —  CHAFING        UNDER        INACTION  AN 

EXPEDITION  TO  NICARAGUA  —  EXPERIENCES  OF  A  TROPI- 
CAL    CLIMATE AN     ADVENTURE     IN     GUATEMALA  —  HOME 

AGAIN OVEREND    &     GURNEY's     INSOLVENCY — DEPRIVED 

OF  HIS  REMAINING  FORTUNE —  EMPLOYMENT  A  NECESSITY 
—  LEARNS    SHEEP-FARMING. 

To  return  from  Honduras  to  India,  nothing  in- 
teresting enough  to  write  about  occurred  to  Mr 
Jcbb  for  some  time  after  his  return  convalescent 
from  the  hills.  But  something  of  great  impor- 
tance to  him  was  taking  place  at  home  —  namely, 
his  father's  re-marriage.  It  was  a  suitable  mar- 
riage enough,  and  nothing  was  more  likely  than 
that  a  man  in  the  Rev.  Mr  Jebb's  position  — 
virtually  bereft  of  wife  and  son,  and  in  bad  health 
—  would  contract  a  second  marriage,  if  only  for 
the  sake  of  mitigating  his  loneliness. 


3<D  Business  Disasters. 

No  hint  of  the  event  was  given  to  Jack  until  it 
had  taken  place ;  and  this  omission,  aggravated 
as  it  was  in  his  mind  by  the  short  time  which 
had  elapsed  since  his  mother's  death,  did  a  great 
deal  towards  lessening  the  small  store  of  affection 
which  he  had  ever  felt  for  his  father.  The 
natures  of  the  two  men  were  too  utterly  opposite 
from  each  other  for  them  ever  to  have  got  on 
well,  once  the  son  had  arrived  at  maturity  and 
become  entitled  to  opinions  of  his  own. 

As  things  turned  out,  there  was  never  any 
chance  either  for  recrimination  or  reconciliation, 
since  within  two  years  of  his  marriage  Mr  Jebb 
died  at  Nice,  whither  he  had  gone  in  search  of 
health.  A  posthumous  child  was  expected,  and 
all  his  affairs  were  left  in  great  confusion.  He 
had  enjoyed  a  life  interest  in  his  first  wife's  pro- 
perty, but  upon  his  death  it  went  at  once  to  her 
son,  and  there  was  little  for  the  widow  and  her 
child  except  Walton,  which  accordingly  was  left 
to  them.  Jack,  who  had  been  brought  up  to 
consider  the  place  his  own,  and  who  loved  every 
foot  of  land  upon  it,  naturally  felt  very  sore 
at  his  loss,  whilst  acknowledging  that,  owing  to 
his  father's  inability  to  provide  otherwise  for  a 
second  family,  it  was  inevitable. 

Owing  to  this  complication  and  other  things, 


Jack  Jebb's  Leave  of  Absence.  31 

there  was  so  much  business  to  be  settled  that  it 
became  absolutely  necessary  for  Jack  to  go  home. 
Now  this  was  exactly  what  most  of  his  brother 
officers  had  been  desirous  of  doing  for  a  long 
time;  and  as  many  of  them  had  been  abroad 
far  longer  than  himself,  it  seemed  unfair  that  he 
should  be  the  first  to  get  leave,  particularly  as, 
if  it  exceeded  six  months,  his  absence  would 
prevent  their  getting  away  at  all.  Quite  seeing 
the  force  of  this,  he  promised  that  if  on  his 
arrival  he  found  that  his  business  would  take 
longer  than  six  months  to  settle,  he  would  send 
in  his  papers  and  retire  from  the  Service,  rather 
than  deprive  any  of  them  of  a  well-earned  holi- 
day. He  was  then  senior  subaltern,  with  a  pros- 
pect of  soon  getting  his  company  but  for  this 
rather  quixotic  piece  of  generosity. 

The  plea  of  "  urgent  private  affairs  "  obtained 
the  necessary  leave,  and  after  an  uneventful 
voyage  Jack  landed  in  England,  young,  rich, 
good-looking,  and  talented,  but  about  as  solitary 
a  human  being  as  could  well  be  imagined.  He 
soon  discovered  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
straighten  his  complicated  affairs  and  be  back 
in  India  within  six  months,  so  he  sent  in  his 
papers,  as  he  had  agreed  to  do;  and  though 
there  was  much  that  he  regretted,  he  was  not 


32  Business  Disasters. 

altogether  sorry  to  be  free  from  a  profession 
which  had  not  been  his  own  choice,  and  of  which 
he  had  only  seen  the  dullest  side.  It  is,  perhaps, 
superfluous  to  mention  that  he  had  fallen  in  and 
out  of  love  a  few  times  prior  to  this  stage  of  his 
career,  as  that  is  a  thing  which  happens  so 
regularly  and  methodically  to  most  men  under 
five-and-twenty  that  it  scarcely  seems  worth 
chronicling.  Besides,  love-stories  always  read 
better  in  works  of  fiction,  where  they  can  be 
rounded  off  to  suit  the  requirements  of  the  tale. 
So  this  being  —  for  a  biography — a  truthful 
history,  such  periodical  attacks  of  love-sickness 
may  be  left  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader. 

The  great  question  now  agitating  Jack's  mind 
was  where  to  settle  down  for  as  long  as  his  rest- 
less spirit  would  allow  him  to  stop  in  one  place. 
Home  he  had  none ;  and  his  relations  were 
limited  to  two  aunts,  and  a  few  cousins,  mostly 
older  than  himself,  who  were  already  plodding 
steadily  along  their  appointed  paths  in  life. 
What  his  soul  really  inclined  to  was  travel,  and 
the  shooting  of  more  big  game ;  but  the  family 
lawyer  had  marked  him  for  his  own,  and  refused 
to  let  him  go  under  two  years.  So  he  had  to 
decide  on  some  place  wherein  to  bestow  himself 
and  his   Indian  spoils  of  rare  chased  weapons, 


At  Oxford.  33 

gorgeous  state  shields,  little  ugly  Burmese  gods, 
and  his  own  hunting  trophies. 

It  suddenly  occurred  to  him,  "  Why  not  go  to 
Oxford  ?  "  The  originality  of  entering  college 
after  leaving  the  army  rather  pleased  him  ;  so  he 
became  a  gentleman  commoner,  put  his  name 
down  for  lectures  on  the  subjects  which  most 
interested  him,  decorated  his  rooms,  took  with 
him  a  couple  of  hunters  and  a  groom,  and  pre- 
pared to  have  a  "  good  time."  He  quite  suc- 
ceeded in  this  ambition,  for  he  made  some  lasting 
friendships,  got  some  capital  hunting,  rowed  in 
his  college  eight,  won  a  match  at  billiards,  care- 
fully refrained  from  overworking  himself,  and 
altogether  spent  three  happy  years. 

If  there  is  such  a  gift  as  second-sight,  it  seems 
probable  that  Jack  Jebb  possessed  it ;  at  all 
events,  if  anything  of  a  supernatural  nature  hap- 
pened, he  was  sure  to  witness  the  occurrence. 
Shortly  before  leaving  Oxford,  he  awoke  from  a 
sound  sleep  one  night  with  an  impression  that 
some  one  was  looking  at  him.  Sitting  up  quickly, 
with  a  sudden  wakefulness  born  of  his  Indian 
experiences,  he  distinctly  saw  the  figure  of  a  man 
standing  at  the  foot  of  his  bed  !  He  was  just 
about  to  ask  the  reason  of  this  midnight  visita- 
tion, when  to  his  horror  he  recognised  the  figure 


34  Business  Disasters. 

as  himself !  There  he  seemed  to  stand,  in  trou- 
sers and  shirt-sleeves,  gazing  into  his  own  eyes, 
while  his  real  self  lay  wondering  in  the  bed  ! 
The  fire  had  not  quite  gone  out,  and  by  its  sub- 
dued light  he  could  take  in  every  detail  of  his 
strange  visitor's  appearance.  However,  to  make 
sure  that  he  was  not  dreaming,  he  prepared  to 
strike  a  match.  As  he  did  so,  his  double  walked 
over  to  the  fireplace  and  literally  and  completely 
vanished !  Jack  by  this  time  was  feeling  rather 
queer,  but  he  got  out  of  bed  and  began  to  search 
the  rooms,  hoping  to  find  concealed  in  them 
some  undergraduate  trying  to  give  him  a  fright. 
The  quest  proved  vain,  for  no  human  being  was 
to  be  found  :  moreover,  the  doors  were  locked 
on  the  inside,  so  no  ordinary  visitant  could  have 
escaped. 

Jack  was  going  to  hunt  next  day,  and  as  he 
went  slowly  back  to  bed  he  reflected  that  by  all 
ghostly  laws  this  apparition  must  mean  that  he 
would  break  his  neck.  It  would,  however,  have 
been  quite  contrary  to  his  principles  to  take 
warning  and  stop  at  home  on  that  account.  On 
the  contrary,  he  went  off  in  the  morning  full  of 
eagerness  to  see  what  would  come  of  his  vision ; 
and  the  oddest  part  of  the  story  is,  that  abso- 
lutely nothing   happened   either  then   or  after- 


Shooting  Tour  in  Skye.  35 

wards  !  The  run  was  good  and  they  killed  their 
fox,  but  never  a  sign  was  there  of  the  reason  for 
that  strange  sight.  It  would  have  made  a  capital 
ghost-story,  if  only  the  event  had  come  off! 
Anybody  less  hard-headed  might  have  attributed 
the  whole  circumstance  to  "  looking  on  the  wine 
when  it  was  red "  overnight,  but  it  was  well 
known  among  the  men  of  his  set  that  it  was 
"  impossible  to  make  Jebb  see  double  !  "  Sev- 
eral of  his  friends  had  frequently  done  their  best 
to  that  end,  but  the  result  was  always  that  after 
three  or  four  hours  of  "  mixed  drinks,"  he  saw 
such  of  them  to  their  rooms  as  were  able  to  walk, 
and  laid  out  the  rest  comfortably  on  the  floor, 
before  retiring  in  excellent  order  himself. 

On  leaving  Oxford,  Jack  went  off  with  a  party 
of  friends  for  a  yachting  and  shooting  tour  round 
about  Skye.  They  met  with  plenty  of  sport  and 
had  a  thoroughly  good  time,  stopping,  when  be- 
lated at  night,  at  quaint  little  country  inns,  where 
they  ate  the  freshest  of  herrings  and  drank  the 
purest  of  Highland  "  dew, "  with  appetites 
strengthened  by  the  long  day's  tramp  through 
the  sharp  sea-air. 

At  this  time  Jack  was  in  receipt  of  about 
£2000  a-year,  all  invested  in  those  good  old- 
fashioned  securities  which  crivc  low  interest  but 


36  Business  Disasters. 

an  easy  mind ;  and  had  he  been  contented  with 
"  the  sweet  security  of  the  Three  Per  Cents,"  his 
history  might  have  been  a  very  different  one.  As 
it  was,  partly  from  a  frail  desire  for  high  interest, 
and  partly  from  sheer  lack  of  employment,  he 
began  to  cast  about  him  for  an  investment  which 
would  give  him  something  to  do,  while  yielding 
more  for  his  money.  So,  when  on  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  yachting  expedition  the  friends  all 
separated  and  went  their  respective  ways,  he 
accepted  an  invitation  from  an  acquaintance,  who 
was  just  starting  the  first  steel  gun-barrel  factory 
near  Glasgow,  and  who  wanted  him  to  go  and 
see  the  works,  with  a  view  to  putting  in  more 
capital. 

The  young  and  optimistic  investor  went,  was 
charmed  with  the  new  invention,  and,  certain  of 
its  success,  he  put  .£23,000  into  the  concern,  be- 
sides throwing  all  his  energy  into  the  work  of 
organising  and  helping  it  forward.  It  gave  him 
a  year's  congenial  employment,  and  it  cost  him 
—  half  his  fortune  ! 

All  was  going  well,  and  orders  were  pouring 
in,  when  the  men  in  a  neighbouring  factory  went 
out  on  strike,  owing  to  some  trifling  dispute  with 
their  masters.  The  employes  of  the  new  factory 
entirely   disapproved    of  the    strike,    and   were 


Unfortunate  Strike.  37 

most  unwilling  to  join  in  it ;  but  they  were  com- 
pelled to  do  so  by  the  trades-union  to  which 
they  and  the  malcontents  alike  belonged.  An 
old  steady-going  firm  would  probably  have 
weathered  the  storm,  but  in  this  case  a  very  few 
weeks  of  unfulfilled  orders  tired  out  their  cus- 
tomers, who  withdrew  their  commissions  and 
cancelled  their  obligations,  with  the  result  that 
within  two  years  from  its  opening  the  new  venture 
closed  its  doors. 

Up  to  the  last  Jack  Jebb  and  his  friend  hoped 
against  hope  that  a  large  order  which  had  been 
half  promised  by  the  Government  might  come 
in  in  time  to  save  them.  Eventually  it  came, 
but  a  little  too  late  for  the  purpose. 

Twenty  years  afterwards  Jack  met  a  War 
Office  official  of  his  acquaintance  in  Piccadilly, 
who  said  to  him,  "  By  the  way,  aren't  you  in- 
terested in  a  steel  gun-barrel  factory  near  Glas- 
gow? Because  we  are  just  sending  it  a  large 
order." 

"  I  was  deeply  interested  in  it,"  answered 
Jack,  "  before  it  ceased  to  exist,  a  score  of  years 
ago,  and  I  should  have  been  fervently  grateful 
for  the  order  then  ;  but  owing  to  the  slight  de- 
lay, it  isn't  of  much  use  to  me  now." 

This    affair,    besides    considerably    damping 


38  B ashless  Disasters. 

young  Jebb's  ardour  for  speculation,  cast  him 
on  the  world  again  at  rather  a  loose  end.  Not 
quite  knowing  what  to  do  with  himself,  and 
being  of  a  nature  that  could  not  endure  inac- 
tivity long,  when  a  friend  suggested  his  join- 
ing in  an  expedition  to  explore  some  of  the 
less  known  parts  of  Nicaragua,  he  was  delighted 
with  the  chance  of  adventure.  Their  idea  was 
to  penetrate  into  that  part  of  the  country  where 
tradition  tells  of  a  wonderful  white  race  which 
has  kept  to  its  native  jungles  for  generations, 
and  which  has  permitted  very  few,  if  any,  of  the 
people  who  have  penetrated  its  recesses  to  live 
to  tell  the  tale. 

Unfortunately  for  themselves,  Jack  and  his 
friend  arrived  at  Nicaragua  in  the  rainy  season ; 
moreover,  they  soon  found  that  no  native  guide 
would  take  the  first  step  into  the  impenetrable 
forests  which  were  supposed  to  shelter  the 
strange  and  savage  people  of  whom  they  were 
in  search.  Awesome  tales  were  told  them  by 
frightened  peons  of  party  after  party  of  "  mad 
Englishmen  "  who  had  passed  away  out  of  sight 
beneath  those  dark  and  heavy  trees,  never  more 
to  be  seen  of  mortal  eye.  Tales,  too,  of  ghastly 
bodies  placed  by  unknown  hands  at  the  verge 
of  the    mysterious   woods,    in   whose    denuded 


Attacks  of  "  Shakes."  39 

bones  were  found  arrows  fashioned  and  poi- 
soned in  a  manner  unknown  to  all  the  Indian 
tribes  who  saw  them.  However,  these  difficul- 
ties did  not  in  the  least  detract  from  the  eager- 
ness of  the  friends  to  pursue  their  investigations, 
although  their  failure  to  induce  any  natives  to 
accompany  them  as  servants  and  guides  was  a 
great  drawback,  as  it  precluded  their  carrying 
with  them  anything  like  a  sufficient  outfit. 

Consequently,  exposure  during  the  hot  days, 
and  wet  cold  nights,  shelterless  as  the  travellers 
were,  soon  brought  on  attacks  of  "  shakes,"  and 
put  an  end  to  their  progress  before  they  had 
time  to  make  any  discoveries.  The  wonder  is 
that  both  did  not  leave  their  fever-stricken 
remains  in  that  unhealthy  spot,  for  it  frequently 
happened  that  in  a  pouring  rain,  which  promptly 
extinguished  their  fire,  they  were  obliged  to  sit 
on  the  ground  all  night,  back  to  back,  in  order 
to  leave  as  little  surface  as  possible  for  the  rain 
to  penetrate.  But  nothing  short  of  patent- 
roofing  can  withstand  a  tropical  downpour  when 
it  is  really  doing  its  best,  and  by  daylight  the 
two  men  were  chilled  through,  feverish,  and 
miserable.  The  rain  usually  ceased  at  dawn  ; 
and  then  how  eagerly  they  coaxed  damp  sticks 
to    burn,   and    comforted    their   wet    and   weary 


40  Business  Disasters. 

souls  with  pannikins  of  hot  coffee.  After  they 
had  quite  given  up  any  hope  of  being  able  to 
attain  the  object  of  their  journey,  they  still  went 
on  travelling  about  in  the  interior,  picking  up 
odds  and  ends  of  curiosities  here  and  there  in 
the  shape  of  arrow-heads,  idols,  and  various 
relics. 

In  order  that  none  of  the  joys  of  a  tropical 
climate  might  be  lost  to  them,  they  one  night 
arrived  at  an  Indian  village  simultaneously  with 
an  earthquake  —  with  several  earthquakes,  in 
fact;  for  no  sooner  did  one  shock  die  away  into 
a  gentle  tremor  than  a  fresh  one  would  begin  to 
make  itself  felt,  and  straightway  along  came 
another  and  a  worse  shaking  of  the  "  solid " 
world,  until  at  last  the  frightened  peons  forsook 
their  huts  and  encamped  in  the  streets  and 
fields,  taking  with  them  as  much  of  their  port- 
able property  as  they  could  carry.  Our  Eng- 
lishmen, not  having  any  valuables  to  protect, 
strolled  about  in  the  intervals  between  the 
shocks,  trying  to  administer  comfort  to  the 
frightened  people,  until  they  came  across  an  old 
lady,  who  delighted  them  so  much  that  they 
spent  the  rest  of  the  night  by  her  side.  She 
had,  with  difficulty,  carried  a  large  picture  of 
her  patron  saint  out  into  the  street  with  her,  and 


Denouncing  a  Saint.  41 

was  now  kneeling  before  it  with  much  piety. 
She  evidently  did  not  regard  it  solely  as  an 
ornamental  possession,  for  every  time  the  deep 
low  thunder  of  a  coming  shock  was  heard,  she 
blessed  and  invoked  the  pictured  saint  vigor- 
ously, entreating  him  with  every  term  of  endear- 
ment in  the  Spanish  language  to  avert  the 
threatened  danger.  When,  however,  the  earth 
trembled  and  the  houses  fell  without  any  inter- 
ference from  the  peccant  saint,  the  aged  believer 
invariably  changed  the  tone  of  her  adjurations, 
and  heaped  every  abusive  term  she  could  think 
of  upon  his  useless,  indifferent  head !  Her 
vocabulary  being  copious,  and  her  power  of 
speech  remarkable,  the  two  travellers  got  more 
insight  during  that  one  night  into  the  true 
inwardness  of  the  Spanish  language  than  they 
could  have  obtained  in  a  year  of  every-day  life. 

Towards  morning  the  earthquakes  grew 
fainter,  and  by  daylight  had  entirely  ceased ; 
so  the  natives  began  to  collect  confidence  and 
their  belongings  together,  and  soon  the  village 
presented  a  normal  appearance,  though  a  pretty 
general  "  up  all  night"  look  about  it  testified  to 
the  previous  alarm. 

It  was,  I  believe,  on  this  journey  that  the 
friends    made    an    expedition    into    Guatemala. 


42  Business  Disasters. 

While  staying  in  an  Indian  village  in  the  inte- 
rior they  heard  that  the  annual  native  dance  — 
a  sort  of  half-religious  gathering  —  was  about  to 
take  place,  and  they  made  up  their  minds  to  see 
what  it  was  like,  in  spite  of  a  warning  from  the 
landlord  of  the  little  ticnda  where  they  lodged, 
who  told  them  that  the  presence  of  strangers 
was  apt  to  be  resented. 

When  the  night  came  they  were  allowed  with- 
out any  difficulty  to  pass  into  the  room  where 
the  dance  was  held,  and  for  a  time  all  went  well, 
notwithstanding  a  good  many  suspicious  looks 
at  the  foreigners  on  the  part  of  the  native  gilded 
youth.  Unfortunately  for  the  former,  the  female 
portion  of  the  community  took  to  them  at  once, 
and  when  the  belle  of  the  ball  —  a  pretty,  soft- 
eyed  "  muchacha,"  whose  white  garments  seemed 
to  be  constructed  out  of  starch  alone,  so  stiff 
were  they  —  began  to  show  a  preference  for  the 
visitors'  society  over  that  of  her  more  legitimate 
admirers,  the  glances  became  more  and  more 
lowering.  At  last,  after  a  hasty  consultation  in 
a  corner,  about  half-a-dozen  young  bloods  drew 
their  knives  and  made  a  sudden  ugly  rush  for 
the  Englishmen.  Meanwhile  the  cause  of  the 
disturbance,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  women, 
had  fled,  and  realising  that  they  were  in  for  a 


Ovenvkelming  Odds.  43 

bad  quarter  of  an  hour,  the  friends  placed  them- 
selves back  to  back  and  prepared  to  fight  their 
way  out  of  the  room. 

Fortunately  for  themselves,  they  were  close  to 
the  door,  which  happened  to  be  so  placed  as  to 
partly  shelter  them  from  their  assailants.  More- 
over, thinking  that  the  young  men  who  first  be- 
gan the  attack  would  be  able  to  bring  it  to  a 
satisfactory  conclusion  without  any  extraneous 
aid,  the  rest  of  the  Indians  in  the  room  carefully 
abstained  from  joining  in  the  fray.  The  odds 
were,  of  course,  overwhelming  so  far  as  numbers 
were  concerned ;  but  then  no  Indian  ever  dreams 
that  his  fists  were  given  to  him  to  use,  and  the 
besieged  managed  to  keep  such  a  circle  round 
themselves  that  it  was  not  easy  to  get  a  knife 
scientifically  placed.  Still,  the  affair  could  have 
had  but  one  ending  eventually,  had  not  the 
women  in  their  flight  from  danger  found  the 
presence  of  mind  to  go  and  explain  the  situa- 
tion to  the  gendarmes.  As  it  was,  an  armed 
detachment  arrived  only  just  in  time,  for  Jack 
and  his  friend  found  their  strength  rapidly  fail- 
ing. Weakened  by  loss  of  blood  from  several 
slight  flesh-wounds,  they  began  to  despair  of 
ever  getting  out  of  the  place  alive.  But  at  the 
first    glimpse   of  the   soldiery  every  knife  was 


44  Business  Disasters. 

sheathed,  and  every  harmless  native  tried  to 
look  as  if  he  had  merely  been  indulging  in  a 
little  horse-play.  Several  of  them,  however,  were 
marched  off  in  custody,  in  spite  of  their  protesta- 
tions ;  while  the  enemy  were  sufficiently  grateful 
for  the  escort  of  a  troop  to  their  domicile.  They 
shortly  received  a  message  from  the  captain  of 
the  guard  that  the  villagers  seemed  to  have  con- 
ceived a  prejudice  against  them,  and  that  he 
thought  it  would  be  well  for  them  to  seek  fresh 
quarters.  They  were  rather  of  that  opinion 
themselves ;  so  as  soon  as  their  cuts  had  been 
strapped  and  their  bruises  anointed,  they  went 
on  their  way,  feeling  thankful  that  the  matter 
had  ended  no  worse. 

Although  they  had  been  disappointed  in  the 
primary  object  of  their  journey,  the  travellers 
managed  on  the  whole  to  spend  a  very  interest- 
ing six  months  before  they  began  to  think  of 
returning.  They  succeeded  in  collecting  a  good 
many  antiquities,  some  of  the  best  of  which  they 
afterwards  presented  to  the  British  Museum  ;  but 
among  those  that  they  retained  were  several  in- 
teresting specimens  dug  up  before  their  eyes  by 
native  archaeologists,  who,  having  previously 
placed  these  treasures  in  their  hiding-places, 
naturally  knew  exactly  where  to  look  for  them  ! 


"Black  Monday ."  45 

Jack  Jebb's  compagnon  de  voyage was  a  fervent 
orchid  worshipper,  and  as  Nicaragua  abounded 
with  what,  in  those  days,  were  rare  specimens, 
he  returned  to  England  laden  with  joy  and  with 
flowers. 

Jack  himself  had  a  much  less  satisfactory  home- 
coming. For  one  thing,  during  his  absence  there 
had  been  a  further  drain  on  his  resources  by 
the  now  quite  defunct  steel  gun-barrel  company, 
and  of  course  the  loss  of  so  much  money  had 
been  rather  a  blow  to  him.  Still,  there  was 
enough  left  to  live  upon,  safely  placed  in  good 
old-fashioned  banks.  But  the  fates  seemed  to 
have  conspired  to  make  him  a  pauper,  and  worse 
was  yet  to  come.  He  had  scarcely  landed  when 
the  almost  national  calamity  known  at  the  time 
as  "Black  Monday"  occurred.  Overend  & 
Gurney's  stopped  payment,  dragging  down  in 
their  fall  many  smaller  concerns,  to  the  disaster 
and  ruin  of  thousands  of  confiding  depositors. 
Mr  Jebb  had  invested  nearly  all  the  rest  of  his 
fortune  in  these  very  banks;  and  within  four 
years,  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  he  found 
himself  reduced  from  something  like  affluence 
to  a  condition  nearly  approaching  pennilessness. 
His  relations  now  entreated  him  to  put  the  very 
few  thousands  saved  from  the  wreck  into  some- 


4.6  Business  Disasters. 

thing  absolutely  safe  and  reliable.  He  promised 
to  do  so,  and  chose  for  his  remaining  capital  an 
investment  thought  to  be  as  safe  as  Consols. 
Within  a  year,  to  the  surprise  and  consternation 
of  half  England,  that  too  failed,  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty-six  Jack  found  himself  destitute  of 
means  or  the  knowledge  of  how  to  provide  him- 
self with  them.  He  had  been  brought  up  to 
feel  secure  of  always  having  as  much  money  as 
he  required,  and  had  been  put  into  the  very 
profession  least  likely  to  be  of  the  smallest 
practical  use  to  him  in  his  present  strait. 

It  was  now  necessary  that  he  should  find 
employment  in  real  earnest,  but,  varied  though 
his  acquirements  were,  there  seemed  few  open- 
ings for  a  man  of  his  age  and  with  his  abhorrence 
of  routine,  or  sedentary  pursuits.  He  drew  and 
painted  far  beyond  the  average,  sang  beautifully, 
could  ride  anything  that  went  on  four  legs,  and 
had  at  odd  times  picked  up  enough  knowledge 
of  engineering  to  be  frequently  mistaken  for  a 
civil  engineer.  Moreover,  he  could  sail  his  own 
yacht,  and  give  his  orders  in  five  languages, 
had  a  quick  intelligence,  a  strong  inventive  bent, 
and  with  his  broad  shoulders  and  athletic  frame 
could  stand  hardships  which  would  have  killed 
a  weaker  man. 


Sheep-farming.  47 

But  with  all  these  advantages,  congenial  work 
was  hard  to  find.  Finally,  he  decided  on  spend- 
ing a  few  months  with  a  sheep-farmer  in  the 
Highlands,  in  order  to  learn  sheep-farming, 
thinking  that  if  he  went  "  out  West,"  as  he  was 
strongly  inclined  to  do,  the  more  knowledge  of 
this  sort  he  could  acquire  the  better  chance  he 
would  have  of  being  able  to  make  his  way  in  a 
new  country. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

COFFEE-PLANTING   IN   BRAZIL. 

FARM-LIFE    IN    THE    HIGHLANDS AMONGST    A    SILENT    FOLK  — 

A  HAUNTED  GLEN  —  FRESH  ENTERPRISE ASSISTS  IN  FOUND- 
ING     THE      WHITE      STAR     LINE SMALL     GAIN      FROM      THE 

UNDERTAKING  —  A  BUSINESS  TOUR  THROUGH  THE  UNITED 
STATES UNCONGENIAL  DUTIES VISIT  TO  BRAZIL MAN- 
AGER ON  A  COFFEE  PLANTATION  —  SUPERVISION  OF  NEGRO 
LABOURERS  —  DARK  STORT  OF  THE  FAZENDA  AN  IN- 
STANCE      OF      JEBB'S       UNSELFISHNESS  OVERWORK      AND 

MALARIA A  MOONLIGHT  RIDE  THROUGH   THE    FOREST  A 

VISION  OF  THE  NIGHT SWAMP  FEVER  —  PECULIAR  RECEP- 
TIVE CONDITIONS  OF  THE  MIND. 

Accordingly  Jack  agreed  with  the  owner  of  a 
farm  in  a  remote  Highland  district  to  spend  six 
months  upon  it,  taking  his  share  of  whatever 
work  might  be  in  progress.  And  a  very  rough 
life  he  found  it  too :  up  before  dawn,  and  to  bed 
at  dusk,  tired  out  by  the  heavy  labour  of  the  day. 
Little  but  Gaelic  was  spoken,  and  in  those  lonely 
regions  speech  of  any  sort  was  rare,  for  the  men 
who  spent  their  lives  alone  with  dumb  animals 
on  those  wide  and  silent  moors  soon  ceased  to 
have  much  use  or  wish  for  words.     Sometimes 


A  Haunted  Glen.  49 

at  night,  over  a  hot  glass  of  whisky  —  their  one 
luxury  —  the  old  farmer  would  unlock  his  lips 
and  tell  strange  stories  of  unquiet  spirits  said 
still  to  haunt  the  secret  glens  in  which  they  had 
once  lain  hidden  from  their  persecutors. 

It  is  certain  that  there  was  one  road  along 
which  no  native  of  those  parts  could  be  induced 
to  walk  after  nightfall.  The  few  who  had 
dared  to  do  so  declared,  in  hushed  and  fearful 
voices,  that  ever  in  front  of  them  walked  a 
soldierly  figure,  clad  in  a  general's  uniform  of 
the  time  of  George  II. ;  and  no  matter  how  fast 
the  spectator  ran,  the  upright  military  shape 
always  kept  exactly  the  same  distance  in  front, 
while  apparently  never  going  out  of  its  measured 
pace.  The  story  went,  that  after  a  rebellion,  so 
large  a  price  was  put  by  the  Government  on  the 
rebel  general's  head,  that  one  of  the  few  who 
knew  of  his  secret  hiding-place  had  been  tempted 
to  reveal  it,  and  that  when  dying  from  the 
wounds  inflicted  in  a  last  desperate  struggle  with 
his  captors,  the  betrayed  man  had  sworn  that 
his  spirit  should  for  ever  haunt  the  spot  from 
whence  treachery  had  driven  him  to-  his  death. 

The  strange  mystic  vein  —  strange  in  a  man 
so  adventurous  and  practical  —  which  was  largely 
developed  in  Jack  Jebb's  character,  was  stimu- 

4 


50  Coffee- Planting  in  Brazil. 

lated  by  tales  such  as  this ;  and  it  is  easy  to 
understand  that  in  those  snowy  solitudes  a  man 
would  feel  nearer  to  the  unseen  world  than  to  that 
lower  one  which  seemed  never  to  have  penetrated 
through  the  dim  Highland  mists. 

Between  days  of  hard  reality  and  evenings 
of  weird  stories,  Jack  passed  his  probation,  and 
at  the  end  of  six  months  left  the  old  farmer, 
with  a  practical  knowledge  of  his  trade,  and  a 
greater  aptitude  than  ever  for  "  roughing  it," 
fostered  by  the  long  hours,  the  bitter  cold,  and 
the  scant  food  of  his  Highland  sojourn.  The 
plan  of  his  life,  however,  seemed  to  be  that, 
having  mastered  one  thing,  he  was  to  be  called 
upon  to  work  at  another !  For  when  he  got 
back  to  town  he  fell  in  with  the  people  who  were 
then  trying  to  arrange  a  scheme  for  a  fresh  line 
of  steamers  across  the  Atlantic.  The  new  ships 
were  to  be  chiefly  for  passenger  traffic,  and  were 
to  be  built  entirely  with  a  view  to  speed  —  a 
desideratum  little  cared  for  up  to  that  time.  A 
business  of  this  sort,  appealing  to  both  his  love 
of  the  sea  and  his  power  of  organisation,  was 
after  Jack's  own  heart.  So  he  threw  himself 
vigorously  into  it,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of 
becoming  one  of  the  founders  of  the  White  Star 
Line.    Anybody  else  would  have  made  a  fortune 


The    White  Star  Line.  5 1 

out  of  an  undertaking  so  successful,  but  Jack 
Jebb's  me'tier  was  rather  to  lose  fortunes  than 
make  them ;  so,  true  to  his  vocation,  nearly  all 
he  got  out  of  a  year's  work  was  a  good  deal  of 
enjoyment  and  about  twenty  trips  across  the 
Atlantic.  It  was  a  proud  day  for  all  concerned 
when  the  first  ship  was  launched,  and  performed 
her  journey  at  what  was  then  thought  the  acme 
of  speed,  but  would  now  be  considered  very 
slow  sailing  indeed. 

Once  the  White  Star  Line  was  "  floated  "  in 
both  senses  of  the  word,  it  soon  became  a 
steady-going  concern  in  which  Jack  ceased  to 
take  much  interest.  He  went  over  to  America 
and  made  a  tour  in  some  of  the  distant  States, 
appointing  agents,  and  expatiating,  as  he  passed 
through  small  towns  and  villages,  on  the  speed 
and  comfort  of  the  new  line  of  steamers.  Of 
course  at  first  no  one  believed  that  they  would 
be  able  to  perform  all  they  promised,  and  their 
pioneer  was  generally  regarded  with  admiration 
by  the  'cute  Yankees  as  an  unusually  expert 
liar! 

However,  he  secured  a  good  deal  of  business 
for  the  company  in  this  way ;  and  when  he  had 
done  all  that  he  could,  he  began  to  look  about 
for  some  other  opening  for  himself — the  office 


52  Coffee- Planting  in  Brazil. 

work,  which  was  all  that  remained  to  be  com- 
pleted in  the  White  Star  Company,  being  too 
uncongenial  for  him  to  do  more  than  give  it 
a  trial.  So,  having  long  wished  to  visit  Brazil, 
he  thought  that  this  would  be  a  favourable 
opportunity  to  see  something  of  the  country, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  find  out  if  he  could 
do  anything  in  the  way  of  coffee-planting 
there. 

Accordingly  he  started  for  that  land  of  natural 
beauty  and  acquired  nastiness.  His  sensations 
when  he  first  caught  sight  of  the  surpassing 
loveliness  of  'Rio  need  not  be  described,  because 
probably  to  most  people  its  charms  are  as  well 
known  as  those  of  the  Thames  below  Marlow. 

Before  he  had  been  many  days  in  the  city, 
Jack  chanced  to  hear  from  a  stray  Englishman 
of  a  coffee  and  sugar  plantation  some  distance 
in  the  interior,  whose  Portuguese  owner  was 
looking  for  a  manager  willing  to  put  a  little 
capital  into  the  concern.  The  district  in  which 
it  was  situated  had  a  bad  name  for  swamp  fever; 
but  as  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  else  against 
it  and  a  good  deal  in  its  favour,  Jack  resolved 
to  go  and  reconnoitre. 

When,  after  a  few  days  on  mule-back  through 
the  wild  scenery  of  the  Sierras,  he  reached  his 


Manager  of  a  Coffee  Plantation.  53 

destination  and  put  up  at  the  village  tienda,  he 
found  that  the  owner  of  the  plantation  —  a 
Visconde  de  B.  —  had  received  notice  of  his 
coming,  and  was  only  too  willing  to  arrange 
any  terms  by  which  he  could  secure  a  relia- 
ble manager —  "  Inglese  "  for  preference  —  and 
be  off  himself  to  the  Mecca  of  every  South 
American  —  Paris  !  The  Visconde  told  Jack 
that  —  for  that  part  of  the  world  —  the  estate 
had  been  under  cultivation  a  great  many  years, 
as  it  had  belonged  to  his  grandfather,  but  that 
the  district  now  being  worked  was  formerly 
virgin  forest,  while  the  part  cultivated  during 
his  grandfather's  lifetime  was  at  the  present 
time  almost  deserted,  being  quite  ten  miles  away 
from  the  new  plantation.  He  added,  however, 
that  there  was  still  a  small  yearly  yield  of  coffee 
at  the  old  fazenda,  and  that  it  was  customary  to 
send  over  a  party  of  blacks  to  get  as  much  as 
they  could.  The  Visconde  offered  no  explana- 
tion of  the  change  of  locale ;  nor  did  Jack  feel 
very  curious  on  the  subject,  as  the  new  planta- 
tion was  evidently  doing  well,  —  and  if  anything 
more  were  to  be  got  from  the  old  one,  well,  so 
much  the  better !  As  the  owner  and  he  were 
both  equally  anxious  to  come  to  terms,  they 
quickly  succeeded  in  doing  so ;   and  as  soon  as 


54  Coffee-Planting  in  Brazil. 

the  necessary  deeds  could  be  drawn  up  by  the 
village  notary,  Jack  entered  on  his  new  duties. 

He  soon  found  that  the  unassisted  supervision 
of  a  couple  of  hundred  blacks  did  not  exactly 
promise  a  life  of  "  lilies  and  roses,"  but  he  got 
on  fairly  well  with  them;  though,  probably,  if 
his  views  on  the  subject  of  slavery  had  been 
proclaimed,  they  would  not  have  been  well 
received  at  Exeter  Hall.  But  the  people  who 
have  lived  with  negroes,  and  the  excellent  per- 
sons who  are  only  acquainted  with  them  through 
missionary  sermons,  usually  do  hold  entirely 
conflicting  views  as  to  their  treatment. 

Jack  had  not  been  long  in  the  neighbourhood 
before  he  heard  the  reason  of  the  desertion  and 
decay  of  the  old  fazenda.  It  seemed  that  the 
late  Visconde  had  been  one  of  the  old  cruel 
masters  that  one  reads  about  as  having  existed 
in  the  dark  ages.  On  his  vast  estates  he  was 
as  absolute  as  a  Czar.  And  he  used  his  power 
with  little  mercy.  There  were  grim  tales  told  of 
the  tortured,  writhing  blacks  he  had  caused  to 
be  flogged  to  death  —  strong  men  some,  ay,  and 
women  among  them.  He  had  owned  500  field 
hands,  and  had  ruled  them  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
It  was  said  of  him  that  should  he  see  a  slave 
touch  with  the  handle  of  his  hoe  one  coffee-tree 


Dark  Story  of  the  Fazenda.  55 

whilst  clearing  the  roots  of  another,  the  unfortu- 
nate wretch  was  sure  of  a  hundred  lashes. 
Some  he  murdered  outright;  some  fled  to  the 
woods  and  lived  like  wild  beasts;  while  others, 
more  happy,  died  of  misery  and  ill-usage.  But 
suddenly  a  strange  complaint  appeared  among 
them,  and  by  twos  and  threes  they  began  to  die 
off,  week  after  week,  month  after  month,  year 
after  year.  And  no  man  could  say  what  this 
new  scourge  might  be. 

The  old  Visconde  was  frantic.  Bribes,  medi- 
cines, and  floggings  were  alike  powerless  to 
check  the  new  disease  —  if  disease  that  could 
be  called  which  none  doubted  was  poison.  Yes, 
poison  !  No  one  was  certain  of  the  reason  of 
the  strange  killing  that  went  on  for  years  among 
the  poor  people  at  the  fazenda  of  Boa  Vista. 
Whether  it  was  owing  to  the  awful  wretched- 
ness of  their  lives,  or  to  the  thought  that  only 
by  dying  could  they  be  revenged  on  the  tyrant 
who  tortured  them,  or  whether  it  was  a  sort  of 
contagious,  murderous  mania,  which  spread 
through  the  whole  mass  of  slaves,  no  man  ever 
discovered;  but  the  fact  remained  that  in  a  few 
years  the  muster-roll  dwindled  from  five  to  three 
hundred,  and  do  what  he  would,  the  Visconde 
found  the  work  getting  beyond  the  power  of  the 


56  Coffee- Planting  in  Brazil. 

over-taxed  slaves.  Then  two  Portuguese  fac- 
tors disappeared.  Murdered,  no  doubt !  Also, 
partly  owing  to  the  dykes  being  neglected,  a 
portion  of  the  river-bank  was  swept  away  one 
rainy  season  and  never  replaced,  so  that  soon 
hundreds  of  acres  of  level  land  (on  part  of 
which  sugar  had  been  successfully  grown)  were 
flooded,  quickly  degenerating  into  marsh. 

The  natura1  consequence,  of  course,  was  that 
fever  soon  bred  malaria  of  the  most  malignant 
type,  and  the  blacks  died  off  faster  than  ever. 
Finally,  the  old  Visconde  abandoned  the  fazenda 
in  despair,  sold  off  such  of  his  slaves  as  re- 
mained, dispersing  them  in  small  gangs  to  dif- 
ferent districts,  bought  150  new  ones,  and 
planted  the  hill  ground  where  the  new  fazenda 
now  stands. 

Such  was  the  cruel  story  of  the  old  plantation, 
of  which  Jack  soon  was  to  see  a  good  deal  more 
than  he  had  bargained  for.  The  yield  of  coffee 
at  the  neglected  place  became  less  and  less  • 
every  year,  until  at  this  time  there  were  not  more 
than  800  arrobas  to  be  gathered.  There  would 
have  been  more,  but  that  the  fever  suddenly 
appeared,  in  spite  of  Jack  having  taken  all  such 
precautions  as  giving  the  people  extra  rations, 
including  spirits,  and   frequently   changing  the 


Fever  and  Malaria.  57 

gang  that  was  employed  there.  It  was  all  in 
vain,  however,  for  in  three  days  there  were  a 
dozen  on  the  sick-list.  So  they  gave  up  work 
and  retreated  to  the  hills,  where  one  poor  fellow 
sank  and  died. 

Unfortunately,  the  drying-grounds  were  so 
close  to  the  river  that  there  was  every  chance 
of  the  coffee  already  picked  being  stolen,  as 
nothing  could  have  been  easier  than  to  fetch  it 
away  in  canoes  during  the  night.  Therefore  it 
was  necessary  for  some  one  to  stay  at  the  old 
EngJienio,  in  order  to  watch  it.  Now  there  was 
not  a  soul  on  the  plantation  who  could  be  trusted 
to  do  this  except  an  Englishman  who  had  just 
arrived  with  his  wife  and  family,  and  it  was  like 
Jack  Jebb  to  reflect  that  the  new-comer  would 
be  more  liable  to  fever  than  an  old  stager  like 
himself,  and  that  the  other  man  had  ties,  while 
he  had  none.  So  the  matter  was  arranged  by 
his  taking  the  night-work  on  his  own  shoulders. 

Accordingly,  after  a  hard  day's  work,  plough- 
ing, draining,  sugar-planting,  or  clearing  forest- 
land,  he  used  to  lie  down  in  his  clothes  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  be  called  at  9  P.M.,  and  then 
ride  over  to  spend  the  night  at  the  deserted 
fazenda.  The  house  was  close  to  the  drying- 
grounds,    so    he    got   into    the   habit    of  estab- 


58  Coffee-Planting  in  Brazil. 

lishing  himself  inside,  with  a  bundle  of  cigars,  a 
dose  of  mixed  spirits  and  quinine,  and  the  use- 
ful, necessary  revolver.  If  only  the  mosquitoes 
had  been  less  painstaking,  he  might  have  been 
fairly  comfortable  as  he  sat  and  watched  the 
white  mist,  reeking  with  poisonous  miasma, 
seethe  up  from  the  great  marshes.  The  bright- 
est moonlight  could  but  dimly  struggle  through 
it  on  to  the  desolate  ruins  of  the  Enghenio.  No 
sound  ever  broke  the  silence  of  those  long  and 
dreary  nights,  save  the  hum  of  the  mosquitoes 
and  the  chattering  of  the  bats.  Even  a  thief 
would  have  been  a  welcome  change !  But  none 
ever  came ;  for,  little  though  Jack  knew  it,  not  a 
black  in  the  country  would  have  ventured  near 
the  place  after  nightfall.  Great  as  was  its  trop- 
ical beauty,  the  old  plantation  looked  as  the 
Garden  of  Eden  might  have  looked  if,  after 
Adam's  expulsion,  a  joint  stock  company  had 
taken  it  up,  gone  bankrupt,  and  fallen  into 
Chancery. 

Well,  one  night  Jack  rode  over  as  usual, 
although  he  was  dead  tired  and  sleepy,  after  a 
long  day's  work  in  a  rice-swamp  under  a  grill- 
ing sun.  The  last  half-mile  or  so  of  the  road 
ran  through  an  avenue  of  magnificent  bamboos, 
fifty  feet  high  at  least,  and  which  met  overhead 


The  Brazilian  Forest.  59 

in  an  arch.  It  was  a  shady  ride  by  daylight, 
but  at  night  was  almost  pitch-dark,  when  of 
course  it  was  necessary  to  ride  at  a  footpace. 
The  avenue  was  quite  straight,  so  that,  as  in 
walking  through  a  tunnel,  you  could  see  an 
arch  of  light  in  front  of  you  long  before  you 
reached  it.  Beyond  the  end  of  the  bamboos 
the  road  swept  sharp  round  to  the  right  for  a 
hundred  yards  or  so,  through  scattered  clumps 
of  orange-trees  and  guava  scrub.  Farther  still 
to  the  right  was  the  half-ruined  Enghenio,  and 
directly  fronting  it  the  drying-grounds,  now 
scraped  clean  of  the  six  months'  accumulation 
of  weeds,  and  covered  with  heaps  of  half-dried 
coffee. 

On  this  particular  night  Jack  had  ridden 
slowly  through  the  avenue,  and  was  within  a 
few  yards  of  where  the  white  moon  streamed 
across  the  road  at  its  termination,  when  his 
mule  started  aside,  and  suddenly  stopped  short. 
No  doubt,  thought  her  rider,  a  snake  was  cross- 
ing her  path,  or  she  had  scented  a  skulking 
puma.  He  was  feeling  thoroughly  fagged  out, 
and  was  half  asleep  in  the  saddle,  thinking — 
nearly  dreaming,  perhaps  —  of  the  ruined  fa- 
zenda  and  its  past  history ;  vaguely  speculating, 
too,  on    the   chance  of  a  meeting   with   coffee 


60  Cojfcc-P  I  anting  in  Brazil. 

thieves,  when  the  halt  of  his  mule  recalled  him 
in  a  moment  to  a  state  of  complete  wakefulness. 
Instinctively  he  grasped  his  revolver  and  pre- 
pared for  action.  For  some  time,  as  he  ad- 
vanced, he  had  heard,  without  listening  to  them, 
the  various  ordinary  night-sounds  of  a  swamp  — 
the  dabbling  and  splashing  of  waterfowl  and  the 
endless  chorus  of  frogs. 

But  now  he  became  conscious  that  a  fresh 
sound  was  added  to  these  —  a  sound  he  had 
been  hearing  every  day  of  his  life  lately,  —  the 
quick,  regular  beat  of  a  water-wheel  and  the 
steady  rush  of  water  through  the  sluices!  In  a 
moment  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  long- 
expected  thieves  had  arrived  early,  intending  to 
make  a  night  of  it,  and  were  coolly  clearing  the 
fazenda  coffee  with  the  fazenda  s  own  machinery, 
which,  though  old  and  rusty,  was  still  in  a  con- 
dition to  do  its  work  in  a  sort  of  way.  A  touch 
of  the  spur  set  the  mule  going  again,  and  in  a 
few  seconds  she  and  her  rider  were  round  the 
bend,  and  looking  at  the  upper  storey  of  the 
Enghenio,  as  it  towered  above  the  orange-clumps. 
To  Jack's  intense  surprise,  the  whole  place 
seemed  to  be  lit  up.  He  guided  his  mule  off 
the  road  in  order  that  her  hoofs  should  not  be 
heard,  and,  revolver  in  hand,  cantered  through 


The  Deserted  Enghenio.  61 

the  orange-grove.  His  astonishment  may  be 
imagined  when  he  got  an  end  view  of  the 
Enghenio,  and  could  see  that  some  of  the  win- 
dows were  open,  and  that  through  them  broad 
streams  of  light  flowed  across  the  drying-grounds, 
which  were  literally  crowded  with  blacks  ! 

He  could  distinctly  see  the  dusky  forms  of  the 
slaves  flitting  backwards  and  forwards  between 
the  Enghenio  and  the  drying-ground,  as  they 
carried  in  large  baskets  of  coffee.  Several  had 
torches,  and  there  were  a  couple  of  overseers 
directing  the  work.  The  blacks  were  all  work- 
ing silently  and  "  at  the  run." 

The  first  thought  that  occurred  to  the  as- 
tounded spectator  was,  that  one  of  his  worthy 
neighbours,  well  known  to  be  quite  capable  of 
robbery  or  any  other  crime,  had  brought  down 
the  whole  of  the  people  on  his  own  plantation, 
intent  on  making  a  clean  sweep  of  the  fazenda. 
Insensibly  Jack  slackened  speed  as  he  picked  his 
way  through  the  last  clump  of  orange-trees.  As 
he  did  so,  a  thicker  wreath  of  mist  seemed  to 
seethe  up  from  the  marsh ;  the  ruddy  glow  of 
light  from  the  windows  apparently  faded  and 
disappeared ;  and  hurrying  slaves,  whom  but  a 
moment  before  he  had  seen  so  distinctly,  melted 
into    darkness    and    vanished.     Another    stride 


62  Coffee- Planting  in  Brazil. 

carried  him  clear  of  the  trees,  to  a  point  within 
twenty  yards  of  the  EngJienio.  He  pulled  up 
with  a  quick  jerk,  utterly  bewildered.  For  there, 
close  before  him,  was  the  drying-ground  with  its 
regular  heaps  of  coffee,  not  one  displaced  — 
nothing  moving,  nothing  visible  —  the  whole 
place  as  silent  and  solitary  as  when  he  had  left 
it  the  night  before  ! 

He  sat  there  for  a  while,  unable  even  to  think, 
but  with  a  strange  feeling  of  awe  creeping  over 
him ;  for,  up  to  that  moment,  it  had  never  oc- 
curred to  him  that  he  could  be  the  victim  of  an 
illusion.  Even  now  he  could  scarcely  force  him- 
self to  believe  that  what  he  had  positively  seen 
was  not  real,  and  he  waited  half  expecting  again 
to  behold  the  troops  of  blacks  come  hurrying  out 
of  the  EngJienio.  But  no  !  not  a  light  or  sound 
was  there  in  the  desolate  place.  Then  he  remem- 
bered the  great  water-wheel.  He  had  heard  that 
going,  and  could  not  have  been  mistaken. 

With  a  feeling  not  far  from  dread,  he  rode 
past  the  Enghenio  towards  the  sugar-house, 
which  was  the  right  wing  of  the  building  —  the 
machinery  being  in  the  centre.  As  he  rode 
slowly  along  the  front,  he  saw  that  the  windows, 
from  which  shortly  before  streams  of  light  had 
issued,  were,  as  usual,  tightly  closed;  the  shut- 


Feeling  not  Far  from  Dread.  63 

ters,  gray  and  steaming  with  damp,  shining 
coldly  in  the  pale  moonlight.  The  centre  door, 
leading  into  the  machine-house,  was  fast,  and 
the  rusty  padlock  untouched.  The  sugar-house 
was  open  on  one  side,  and  into  this  he  rode  his 
mule,  dismounted,  and  explored  the  building. 
Nothing  seemed  changed.  There  was  no  trace 
of  any  one  having  visited  it.  He  made  his  way 
to  the  part  of  the  building  partitioned  off  for  the 
water-wheel.  He  knew  that  must  satisfy  him. 
Several  of  the  planks  had  rotted  and  fallen  back 
into  the  watercourse  below:  they  had  left  a 
large  gap  in  the  partition,  through  which  he 
looked  at  the  wheel.  A  cold  chill  passed  through 
him  as  he  did  so,  for  the  broad  floats  were  as 
dry  as  tinder,  and  the  wheel  itself  was  held  locked 
by  a  fallen  rafter  which  had  passed  through  its 
arms.     It  had  not  moved  for  a  year ! 

Far  below  was  the  water,  unconfmed  by  sluice 
or  shutter,  running  silently  along  the  shoot,  and 
not  even  touching  the  lowest  float  of  the  wheel. 
Two  or  three  bats,  disturbed  by  the  lantern  he 
carried,  fluttered  past  him,  the  only  signs  of  life 
visible.  Then  he  knew  that  what  he  had  seen 
could  not  be  real ;  but  in  that  case,  how  account 
for  the  noise  of  the  wheel?  His  head  ached  as 
he    sat  in   the   sugar-house    puzzling   over   the 


64  Coffee- Planting  in  Brazil. 

weird  sight  till  near  daylight,  when  he  rode 
slowly  home.  He  could  eat  no  breakfast,  but 
still  he  insisted  on  going  out  to  see  some  fresh 
land  that  was  being  cleared.  However,  he  soon 
began  to  feel  very  ill,  had  to  be  taken  home, 
and  by  evening  was  down  with  swamp  fever, 
and  raving. 

He  had  a  pretty  bad  turn,  and  made  a  good 
deal  of  noise;  but  the  odd  thing  was,  that  when 
he  recovered  he  could  remember  many  of  his 
delusions  as  if  they  were  facts,  while  the  real  facts 
he  had  entirely  forgotten. 

Whether  it  was  the  fever  that  brought  him 
the  negro  ghosts,  or  the  ghosts  that  brought  the 
fever,  is  one  of  those  things  which  no  man  can 
decide.  But  it  does  seem  possible  that  in  some 
overstrained,  receptive  conditions  of  the  mind, 
strange  things  may  be  seen, — things  invisible 
at  other  times,  when  the  consciousness  of  the 
body  overpowers  that  of  the  soul.1 

1  Jebb  afterwards  wrote  the  story  of  "  The  Haunted  Eng- 
henio  "  for  '  Blackwood's  Magazine.' 


CHAPTER   V. 

IN   THE   FAR   WEST. 

RELAPSE    OF    ILLNESS ORDERED    TO     A     COLDER    CLIMATE 

GETTING  USED  TO  HIS  PERSISTENT  ILL-LUCK  —  OPPOR- 
TUNELY   REALISES   CERTAIN    "EXPECTATIONS" SAILS  FOR 

NEW      YORK  —  MEETS       WITH     AN      OLD      FRONTIERSMAN  

AFTER  BUFFALO  IN  THE  FAR  WEST SOME  OF  THE  DIS- 
COMFORTS OF  CAMPING-OUT BOB  BARKER'S  CHARACTER- 
ISTICS  NARROW    ESCAPE    FROM     ACCIDENTAL    SHOOTING  

A  PRAIRIE  MURDER  CONJECTURES  AS  TO  THE  PERPE- 
TRATOR  A     LONG     RECORD   OF     CRIME A    GHASTLY     SIGN 

SCARE     IN     REGARD     TO     MOUNTAIN      TRAVELLING  THE 

VIGILANTES  FAIL  TO  FIND  A  CLUE  —  NEWSPAPER  ARTI- 
CLES   ON    THE    OUTRAGES  — PERSONAL    DANGER. 

Now  an  attack  of  malaria  as  severe  as  that  just 
described  fixes  on  a  man  with  a  deadly  grip  not 
easy  to  shake  off.  So  it  came  about  that  after 
he  had  recovered,  and  commenced  work  again, 
very  few  weeks  of  riding  about  in  the  mid-day 
sun  and  the  evening  dew  induced  a  relapse,  with 
a  fit  of  shakes  which  brought  Jack  to  the  verge 
of  the  grave.  To  add  to  his  troubles,  it  had 
been  a  bad  coffee  year,  and  there  was  little  to 
show  for  his  labours. 

Of  course  the  owner  of  the  plantation  was 
"seeing  life"  in  Paris,  from  which  paradise  he 
5 


66  In  the  Far   West. 

had  no  intention  of  returning  to  live  in  a  fever- 
stricken  swamp,  so  long  as  one  "  mad  Englishman  " 
was  left  who  would  do  so  for  him.  Moreover, 
when  of  the  two  parties  to  a  contract  one  is  in 
the  interior  of  Brazil,  and  the  other  in  the  heart 
of  Europe,  it  is  not  easy  to  enforce  the  fulfilment 
of  that  contract,  and  Jack  began  to  find  that  he 
was  going  to  be  "  left "  in  both  senses  of  the 
word.  By  this  time  he  was  getting  so  used  to 
the  persistent  ill-luck  of  all  his  ventures,  that  he 
was  more  disappointed  than  surprised  when  he 
had  to  make  up  his  mind  that  he  might  as  well 
leave  the  EiigJienio  before  wasting  more  time  and 
money  upon  it.  No  doubt  he  was  partly  helped 
to  this  conclusion  by  the  native  doctor,  who  told 
him  that  unless  he  speedily  betook  himself  to  a 
colder  climate  nothing  could  ward  off  another 
attack  of  malaria,  which,  in  his  weakened  condi- 
tion, would  probably  be  the  last.  He  therefore 
acquainted  the  Visconde  de  B.  with  his  intention 
in  a  very  plain-spoken  letter,  installed  the  only 
Englishman  in  the  place  as  manager,  and  then 
sailed  for  New  York,  having  acquired  a  good 
deal  of  insight  into  the  working  of  a  coffee  plan- 
tation, learned  a  fair  amount  of  bad  Portuguese, 
and  lost  yet  a  little  more  money. 

Fortunately  for  him,  he  had  some  "  expecta- 


Meets  with  an  Old  Frontiersman.         6j 

tions,"  one  of  which  opportunely  fell  in  at  this 
period,  giving  him  a  little  ready  money  with  which 
to  carry  on  the  war. 

He  had  now  knocked  about  the  world  long 
enough  to  have  made  a  good  many  acquaintances 
of  various  social  grades  and  very  different  char- 
acters in  most  of  the  places  he  had  visited. 
Accordingly,  he  had  not  been  long  in  New  York 
before  he  ran  up  against  an  old  guide,  whom  he 
had  met  in  one  of  his  excursions  on  behalf  of  the 
White  Star  Line,  and  whose  business  it  was  to 
show  the  guileless  tenderfoot  how  to  hunt  buffalo. 
There  were  still  a  few  buffaloes  left  in  those 
days. 

The  guide,  an  old  frontiersman  called  Bob 
Harker,  told  Jack  that  he  was  then  about  to  start 
for  the  plains,  where  he  would  procure  a  waggon 
and  team,  pick  up  his  companion,  a  half-breed 
Government  scout  and  hunter  called  "  Mudeater  " 
—  of  Cherokee  blood  —  and  then  spend  some 
months  hunting  and  camping-out.  He  asked  his 
English  acquaintance  if  he  would  not  like  to 
join  the  party,  and  Jack  quickly  decided  that  he 
most  emphatically  would,  especially  as  the  free 
life  and  bracing  air  of  the  plains  would  be  more 
likely  than  anything  else  to  drive  the  last  germs 
of  fever  from  his  blood.     His  preparations,  con- 


68  In  the  Far   West. 

sisting  chiefly  as  they  did  of  rifles  and  ammuni- 
tion, were  soon  made,  and  the  two  men  started 
by  rail  to  a  little  station  on  the  Kansas  Pacific 
Railway,  whence  they  struck  out  south.  After 
the  first  day  they  "joined  parties"  with  five 
buffalo-hunters,  also  bound  south.  Their  new 
comrades  were  not  exactly  agreeable  compan- 
ions, being  mostly  on,  or  over,  the  edge  of  deli- 
rium tremens;  but  the  Rapahoes  were  reported 
"  out,"  and  only  a  fortnight  before  a  hunters' 
camp  had  been  surprised,  and  five  men  and  a 
woman  killed. 

Therefore,  as  eight  straight  rifles  are  better 
than  three,  to  say  nothing  of  as  many  revolvers, 
the  two  parties  joined  forces,  for  the  march  at  all 
events. 

The  first  day  out  there  were  no  incidents.  The 
strangers  were  sleeping  off  their  potations  in  a 
comatose  condition  at  the  bottom  of  their  wag- 
gons, though  always  keeping  one  of  their  number 
sober  enough  to  drive.  Jack  got  two  antelopes 
out  of  a  band  that  galloped  past,  while  the  driver 
grabbed  his  rifle  and  missed  them  clean.  He 
rubbed  his  eyes,  swore  feebly,  and  remarked  that 
he  had  missed  them  through  seeing  two  herds  of 
antelope  and  shooting  at  the  wrong  one  ! 

The  party  passed  a  wretched  night,  camping 


Discomforts  of  Camping  Out.  69 

at  a  mud-hole,  with  burnt  prairie  all  round,  and 
with  no  food  for  the  stock  except  their  corn. 
The  coyotes  howled  dismally,  like  lost  souls  in 
purgatory,  while  the  five  drunken  hunters  spent 
most  of  the  night  in  furious  quarrels.  When  day 
broke,  it  was  found  that  there  was  only  enough 
water  for  coffee,  and  none  for  washing,  as  the 
horses  had  trampled  the  only  water-hole  into  a 
mass  of  mud. 

There  was  a  long  day's  march  to  the  next  water, 
a  creek  near  which  they  expected  to  find  buffalo  ; 
but  the  early  morning  air  was  keen  and  bracing, 
and  was  made  to  do  for  a  wash.  So  after  a  hasty 
breakfast  on  antelope-steak,  the  team  was  har- 
nessed up  and  the  travellers  started  due  south. 
Hour  after  hour  they  toiled  over  the  endless 
prairie,  broken  only  by  long,  shallow  depres- 
sions, which  during  the  rainy  season  might  carry 
water,  but  now  were  dry  as  dust  and  sun  could 
make  them. 

The  guide,  Bob  Harker,  had  been  a  Confeder- 
ate during  the  war.  He  had  also  filled  the  posi- 
tions of  stage-driver,  prospector,  and  preacher. 
Many  and  strange  had  been  his  adventures,  and 
many  a  tale  could  he  tell  of  the  war,  or  of  the 
stirring  times  "  out  west  "  in  the  sixties.  He  was 
a  typical  pioneer  —  strong  as  a  bear  and  quick 


yo  In  the  Far   West. 

as  a  cat  —  a  strange  combination  of  simplicity 
and  shrewdness,  a  splendid  shot,  and  a  noted 
tracker.  He  was  outwardly  pretty  much  in  the 
rough,  but  at  times  would  give  evidence  that  if 
his  reading  had  not  been  extensive,  it  had  at 
least  been  varied.  He  once  took  Jack  to  visit 
his  "  home,"  a  snug  log-cabin  on  the  head  waters 
of  Ute  Creek,  where  he  kept  a  shelf  of  miscel- 
laneous volumes  —  "  Prescott  "  flanked  by  Byron 
and  Scott,  while  between  a  treatise  on  the  min- 
ing law  of  California  and  Ingersoll's  lectures  was 
a  copy  of  Paley's  '  Evidences.' 

"  You  see,  boss,"  he  explained,  "when  one 
spends  long  evenings  alone,  one  wants  some- 
thing solid  to  read,  though  one  can't  always 
make  out  what  the  fellow  meant  who  wrote  it. 
As  to  them  'Evidences'  —  well,  it's  only  the 
square  thing  to  give  both  sides  a  show,  but  / 
think  Bob  Ingersoll  '  lays  all  over  the  other 
duck.'  " 

To  return  to  the  journey.  They  toiled  along, 
mile  after  mile,  until,  sick  of  the  eternal  jolting, 
Jack  descended  from  the  box-seat,  and  taking 
his  rifle,  started  off  in  advance.  The  half-breed 
was  behind  with  the  second  waggon,  to  which 
he  was  attracted  by  the  hope,  if  not  the  cer- 
tainty, of  whisky.     Jack  soon    got  half  a  mile 


Narrow  Escape.  yi 

ahead,  looking  carefully  into  each  sweeping 
valley  before  showing  himself  on  the  sky-line, 
as  he  was  now  nearing  the  buffalo  range,  and 
might  at  any  moment  run  on  to  an  out-lying 
old  bull. 

As  he  was  stepping  steadily  along,  his  medi- 
tations were  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  distant 
report  of  a  rifle,  and  the  whizz  of  a  bullet  a  few 
feet  over  his  head.  He  turned  quickly,  and  not 
300  yards  off  saw  the  half-breed  "  Muddy,"  who 
stood  out  clearly  on  the  crest  of  the  next  ridge, 
while  the  puff  of  smoke  still  visible  made  it 
clear  that  the  shot  came  from  him.  When  he 
found  himself  observed,  he  began  advancing 
towards  Jack,  who,  by  the  irregularity  of  his 
progress,  could  see  that  he  was  drunk,  and  as 
he  came  nearer,  could  distinguish  on  his  features 
a  propitiatory,  depreciative  grin.  Jack  sighted 
for  the  middle  of  his  chest,  and  kept  him 
covered  as  he  advanced,  but  "  Muddy"  showed 
not  the  slightest  sign  of  uneasiness. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  shooting  at  me  ? 
I've  a  good  mind  to  do  for  you  !  "  pacifically 
remarked  the  victim. 

"  Don't  be  mad  at  me  boss,"  pleaded  "  Muddy." 
"I'm  real  sorry;  but  s'help  me,  I  thought  you 
was  a  jack  rabbit." 


72  In  the  Far   West. 

Now,  to  be  fired  at  by  a  noted  shot,  in  a 
country  where  all  shoot  well,  is  distinctly  annoy- 
ing. But  to  be  mistaken  for  a  jack  rabbit  into 
the  bargain  is  adding  insult  to  injury,  and  for  a 
few  seconds  Jack  was  not  quite  sure  whether  or 
no  he  would  join  in  "  Muddy's"  laugh. 

At  last  he  said,  "  Look  here,  Muddy,  when 
you  are  sober  you  can  shoot  straighter  than  I 
can,  but  when  you're  drunk  I  can  lick  you  every 
time,  and  when  next  you  fire  at  me  I'm  going 
to  shoot  back.     I  promise  you  I  won't  miss." 

"  All  right,  boss,"  replied  Muddy,  "  that's  a 
square  deal;  but  you  can  bet  your  boots  I  won't 
fire  again  —  thar,  shake  !  " 

And  facing  south  once  more,  they  tramped 
on  amicably  together,  Muddy  diving  into  a  long 
story  of  a  recent  rencontre  with  a  Sioux  chief, 
whose  cartridge  belt  he  was  then  wearing;  from 
which  fact  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  meeting 
was  unpleasant  in  its  results  for  the  Sioux.  He 
was  in  the  middle  of  his  tale,  and  they  were 
crossing  a  low  divide  between  two  long  depres- 
sions, when  he  crouched  suddenly  and  threw  for- 
ward his  rifle,  whispering,  "  Down,  boss,  down  ! 
there's  a  man  hid  in  the  willows,  and  he  may 
be  on  the  shoot." 

"Where  is  he?"  asked  Jack;  "I  see  nothing." 


Man  Hid  in  the    Willows.  73 

"  He's  down  to  the  left,"  was  the  reply.  "But 
I  don't  see  his  horse  anywhere ;  and  he  can't  be 
a  hunter,  for  we  ain't  on  the  range  yet.  He's  a 
white  man,  for  I  see  his  boots;  but  he  ain't 
moved  an  inch  since  I  first  saw  him.  Can  he  be 
dead,  I  wonder?" 

The  two  men  began  to  creep  along  the  shelter 
of  the  ridge  towards  the  still  figure,  but  they 
had  not  gone  ten  yards  when  a  solitary  buzzard 
slowly  rose  and  circled  high  into  the  air.  That 
made  things  clear  to  them,  and  shouldering  their 
rifles,  they  advanced  without  further  precaution. 
A  moment  later  they  could  distinctly  see  a  man 
lying  on  his  back  with  his  feet  towards  them. 
When  they  got  closer  they  saw  that  he  who  lay 
there  with  his  face  upturned  to  the  unresponsive 
sky  was  a  tall  and  powerfully  built  man,  while, 
judging  from  the  clothes  he  wore,  his  profession 
was  that  of  a  miner.  His  attitude  was  so  natural 
that  he  might  have  been  sleeping,  but  that  the 
shrivelled,  lead-coloured  features  told  a  different 
tale,  while  a  round  black  spot  in  the  centre  of 
his  forehead  explained  how  he  came  by  his  end. 
Muddy  kept  silence  for  a  moment,  though  his 
eyes  were  busy  searching  every  tuft  of  grass 
around  the  place  where  they  were  standing. 
Then  he  delivered  himself  of  the  conclusions  he 
had  drawn. 


74  In  the  Far   West. 

"  There's  been  no  fight  here,  or  there'd  be 
some  empty  shells  about;  likewise  there  ain't 
no  horse-tracks.  Some  one  has  '  laid  for  '  this 
poor  fellow  and  got  him  before  he  knew  it.  It 
wasn't  an  Indian  either,  or  his  hair  would  have 
been  lifted ;  nor  a  '  road  agent,'  or  his  pockets 
would  be  empty;  and  see  here,"  taking  a  hand- 
ful of  dollars  from  the  murdered  man's  pocket. 
"  No,  I  guess  I  know,  who  done  this  job.  Just 
you  open  his  shirt  and  see  if  there's  anything 
wrong  with  his  chest." 

Muddy's  manner  was  so  impressive  that  Jack 
felt  a  thrill  of  horror  go  through  his  frame,  even 
before  he  did  as  he  was  told,  and  gently  touch- 
ing the  dead  man's  shirt,  exposed  to  view  a  large 
deep  cross-cut  on  his  bared  breast. 

"  I  thought  so,"  said  Muddy,  placidly. 

"  What  did  you  think?  What  does  it  mean?  " 
asked  Jack,  anxiously. 

"  The  tale's  too  long  to  tell  now,"  said  Muddy 
—  "the  other  chaps'll  be  here  directly  ;  but  I'll 
tell  you  all  about  it  as  we  go  on.  I  don't  mind 
letting  you  know  now,  that  there's  buffalo  not 
far  off,  'cause  this  poor  chap's  been  here  a  week 
or  more,  and  the  coyotes  haven't  been  to  look 
for  him  yet,  as  they  certainly  would  if  they 
hadn't  a  big  herd  somewhere  near  to  feed 
upon." 


Fiendish  Conduct.  75 

Soon  the  first  waggon  appeared  on  the  crest  of 
the  divide,  and,  in  obedience  to  a  signal,  rolled 
slowly  towards  the  silent  little  group,  followed 
shortly  by  its  companion.  None  of  the  men 
knew  whose  the  body  was,  but  they  all  seemed 
to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  strange  sign  it 
bore. 

"  I  heard  that  fiend  had  begun  his  tricks 
again,"  said  Bob  Harker,  "  and  sure  enough  it's 
true !  " 

"  I  should  like  to  get  within  shooting  distance 
of  him  once — just  once!"  murmured  Muddy 
softly. 

"They  say  there's  a  reward  out  for  him," 
broke  out  one  of  the  other  men. 

"No,  there  ain't,"  said  Bob,  "  'cause  the  coun- 
cil's afraid  some  one  would  go  and  shoot  a  wrong 
man  and  bring  him  in  to  get  the  reward  !  " 

Jack  listened  and  wondered,  but,  as  became  a 
"  tenderfoot,"  offered  no  remarks  on  a  subject  of 
which  it  was  evident  he  knew  only  the  results 
and  not  the  cause.  He  suggested  at  last,  how- 
ever, that  something  must  be  done  about  giving 
the  corpse  a  securer  resting-place.  They  had 
no  spades,  and  the  ground  was  hard  as  flint, 
whilst  they  were  still  ten  miles  from  the  nearest 
water.     So  one  of  the  hunters  was  bribed  with  a 


J6  In  the  Far   West. 

five-dollar  bill  (on  which  he  saw  a  reasonable 
chance  of  shortly  getting  drunk  again)  to  take  a 
led  horse  and  ride  back  to  the  post  to  report  the 
matter.  Then  he  was  to  guide  a  burying-party 
to  the  spot,  and  rejoin  his  companions  later. 
The  two  waggons  began  to  move  on  meanwhile, 
Jack  and  the  half-breed  walking  a  little  in  ad- 
vance as  before,  while  Bob  took  charge  of  their 
waggon. 

Jack,  of  course,  was  eager  to  know  who  was 
suspected  of  being  the  assassin  of  the  man  whose 
body  they  had  found,  and  Muddy  soon  plunged 
into  the  following  story.  Colorado  and  its  neigh- 
bourhood was  just  beginning  to  settle  down  into 
a  fairly  respectable  place,  where  murders  were 
infrequent,  and  where  such  as  did  occur  were 
usually  considered  to  be  richly  deserved,  —  the 
perpetrators  not  being  interfered  with  by  the 
remarkably  short  "  arm  of  the  law "  in  those 
regions. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  the  previous 
summer,  when  the  driver  of  the  Colorado  spring- 
stage  brought  in  news  of  a  murder  having  been 
committed  in  Ute  Creek.  Probably  no  one 
would  have  been  greatly  disturbed  by  this 
announcement,  but  for  several  curious  features 
in  the  case.     The  murdered  man  had  been  shot 


A  Long  Record  of  Crime.  77 

in  his  tracks,  and  then  marked  with  two  deep 
gashes,  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  upon  his  chest. 
His  scalp  was  still  where  nature  placed  it,  and 
he  had  not  been  robbed,  so  that  his  death  was 
not  the  work  of  either  "  road-agents  "  or  Indians. 
Therefore  it  must  have  been  the  result  of  sheer 
spite  or  "  cussedness."  The  whole  thing  seemed 
queer;  but  probably,  as  the  murdered  man  was 
a  stranger,  the  manner  of  his  death  would  soon 
have  been  forgotten,  but  that  a  few  days  after- 
wards news  was  brought  of  two  more  murders  — 
one  on  the  road  below  Georgetown,  and  the 
other  nearly  a  hundred  miles  off.  Both  were 
apparently  the  work  of  one  hand,  for  neither 
had  been  robbed,  and  both  bore  the  fatal  sign  of 
the  deeply-cut  cross  on  the  chest ;  while  stranger 
than  all,  although  so  far  apart,  they  both  ap- 
peared to  have  been  killed  the  same  day ! 
Nothing  had  made  such  a  stir  since  people  first 
penetrated  into  those  mountain-passes ;  for  it 
looked  as  though  some  one  were  at  work  who 
killed  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  slaying,  and  no 
man  knew  if  his  turn  might  not  come  next. 
Search-parties  were  sent  out,  but  with  no  result, 
except  that  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
gang  was  at  work,  for  the  road  near  the  mur- 
dered   man  in  each    instance  was  covered  with 


7 8  In  the  Far   West. 

horses'  tracks,  but  with  so  many,  and  going  in 
such  different  directions,  that  it  was  useless  to 
attempt  to  follow  them.  A  week  later,  yet 
another  body  was  found,  about  twenty  miles 
south  of  Denver,  evidently  recently  killed,  and 
in  the  same  manner,  and  marked  with  the  same 
sign  as  the  other  three  ! 

People  now  were  thoroughly  scared,  and 
didn't  care  about  going  through  the  mountains 
alone,  for  so  far  no  parties  had  been  molested, 
only  solitary  men,  who  were  evidently  lain  in 
wait  for  and  murdered  without  the  chance  of  a 
fight  for  their  lives.  The  vigilantes  took  the 
affair  up,  but  with  no  success  whatever;  and 
week  after  week  news  would  come  of  other 
ghastly  crossed  bodies  found  perhaps  as  much 
as  two  hundred  miles  away  from  the  last  one ; 
until,  by  the  time  the  snow  began  to  fly  in 
November,  there  had  been  over  twenty  murders 
committed  by  that  secret  band  of  assassins. 
After  the  first  snow  they  abruptly  stopped. 
Evidently,  then,  it  was  old  hands  who  were  at 
work,  and  who  had  no  idea  of  leaving  tracks  in 
the  snow,  which  any  "  tenderfoot  "  would  be  able 
to  read.  All  that  winter  not  a  man  was  missing, 
and  not  a  ray  of  light  was  cast  on  the  mystery  ! 
But  when  spring  came  round  again,   before  the 


Personal  Danger.  79 

roads  had  been  open  a  week,  the  South  Park 
stage  driver  brought  in  word  that  another  man 
had  been  found  shot  and  crossed,  some  fifteen 
miles  up  in  the  mountains! 

During  the  next  month  two  more  murders  were 
added  to  the  long  list  —  one  near  Blackhawk,  and 
one  near  Manitou  —  and  people  were  beginning 
to  think  with  a  cold  horror  of  these  murdering 
fiends  whom  it  seemed  impossible  to  trace  or 
find.  The  Eastern  papers,  too,  got  hold  of  the 
story,  and  began  to  have  articles  on  the  territory, 
saying  that  what  between  Indians,  "  40-rod " 
whisky,  and  secret  murders,  as  a  law-abiding 
section  it  wasn't  a  success,  and  ought  to  be 
looked  after.  This  made  both  the  city  council 
and  the  vigilantes  mad,  and  they  redoubled  their 
efforts  to  find  the  authors  of  the  trouble,  but 
never  a  sign  could  they  discover.  The  wretches 
knew  their  work  too  well. 

"And  now,"  wound  up  Muddy,  after  his  long 
story,  "  we've  come  across  the  last  of  these  jobs, 
and  perhaps  we're  being  '  stalked '  ourselves  at 
this  moment." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

AN   ADVENTURE  ON  THE   PLAINS. 

ON    THE    MARCH  —  PRECAUTIONS     AGAINST     INDIANS  "  SIGN  " 

OF  BUFFALO  —  A  BLOODY  CONSPIRACY  ON  FOOT  — A  SCOUT'S 
LOYALT  Y FURTHER  ATROCITIES BREAK-UP  OF  THE  HUNT- 
ING PARTY — JACK  JEBB  JOINS  IN  PURSUIT  OF  THE  MAN- 
SLAYER  THE  PROBABLE  CRIMINAL  AND  HIS  RENDEZVOUS 

TRACKED  —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  "  LOST  PARK  "  —  THE  SCOUT'S 
MODE  OF  ATTACK  — RETRIBUTION  AT  LAST  — A  GRUESOME 
DIARY  THE  CAREER  OF  "  BIG  FOOT  "  THE  LONG- 
CHERISHED  VENGEANCE  OF  A  MEMBER  OF  A  SOUTHERN 
RACE. 

After  the  half-breed's  last  inspiriting  remark,  the 
pair  trudged  along  silently  for  some  moments, 
when  Jack  said  that  he  thought  on  the  whole  he 
would  rather  hunt  these  murderers  than  buffalo, 
in  which  sentiment  Muddy  quite  agreed  with 
him,  —  but,  as  he  observed,  buffalo  left  tracks 
by  which  they  could  be  found  when  wanted, 
while  these  human  brutes  had,  so  far,  been  care- 
ful not  to  do  so.  "  All  the  same,"  he  concluded, 
"they'll  be  taken  some  day;  and  then  I  don't 
think  their  trial  will  last  lone !  " 


On  the  March.  81 

Muddy  then  volunteered  to  change  places  with 
Bob,  and  got  into  the  waggon,  driving  the  tired 
team  along  as  though  they  were  the  wretches  he 
had  been  talking  of.  The  travellers  were  not 
far  from  their  journey's  end  by  this  time,  and 
they  reached  water  about  sundown  —  a  half-stag- 
nant creek,  which  here  and  there  opened  into 
big  ponds  black  with  wild  fowl.  With  some 
trouble  the  waggons  were  got  over,  as  on  the 
opposite  side  was  an  ideal  camping-ground.  The 
creek  made  a  regular  horse-shoe  bend,  surround- 
ing some  four  acres  of  land,  and  leaving  only  a 
neck  about  forty  paces  broad  opening  into  the 
prairie,  so  that  both  flanks,  together  with  the 
rear,  were  well  protected,  while  there  was  plenty 
of  space  for  the  stock  to  feed  comfortably.  The 
two  waggons  were  drawn  across  this  neck,  and 
the  tongues  interlaced.  Jack  pitched  his  small 
tent  on  one  flank,  and  then  helped  to  build  a 
fire  of  buffalo-chips  on  the  other.  The  men 
spread  their  blankets  either  below  or  under  the 
lee  of  the  waggons,  while  two  of  them  were  sent 
to  scout  up  and  down  the  creek  for  any  sign  of 
neighbours,  red  or  white  —  particularly  red,  for 
on  his  native  prairie  the  noble  red  man  is  apt 
to  forget  the  beautiful  ideal  set  up  for  him  in 
Fenimore  Cooper's  immortal  works,  and  to  cause 


82  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

his  society  to  be  little  cultivated,  and  less  sought 
for,  by  the  unromantic  hunters  who  know  his 
"  little  ways." 

When  the  scouts  returned,  reporting  that  all 
looked  quiet,  the  watch  was  set,  and  a  sumptuous 
supper  of  rashers  of  bacon  and  antelope-steak 
was  cooked  over  the  camp-fire,  and  washed  down 
with  hot  coffee.  Then  pipes  were  produced,  and 
each  man  made  himself  comfortable  according 
to  his  lights,  for  after  the  fatiguing  day's  march 
they  were  all  glad  enough  of  a  rest.  Some  talked 
and  speculated  over  the  events  of  the  afternoon, 
while  others  discussed  the  probability  of  finding 
buffalo  next  day,  as  during  the  last  few  hours 
they  had  come  across  unmistakable  "sign"  of 
being  on  the  track  of  a  large  herd,  which,  as  it 
would  be  certain  to  work  down  to  the  water  on 
which  they  were  encamped,  they  might  be  pretty 
sure  of  overtaking  early  in  the  morning. 

Neither  Jack  nor  the  guide  felt  much  drawn 
towards  trusting  their  companions  with  the  post 
of  sentinel  during  the  night,  as,  if  they  didn't 
murder  or  rob  the  party  themselves,  they  were 
sure  to  be  too  drunk  to  interfere  with  any  stray 
Rapahoes  who  might  have  a  similar  design  !  So 
it  was  arranged  for  Jack  to  take  the  first  watch, 
and  for  Bob  Harker  to  relieve  him  at  I  A.M.; 


Conspiracy  on  Foot.  83 

the  reason  for  this  being  that,  when  Indians  make 
a  night  attack,  they  usually  choose  the  hour 
before  dawn,  and  therefore  it  was  best  for  the 
old  frontiersman,  with  his  trained  eye  and  ear, 
to  be  on  duty  at  that  time.  Jack  took  up  his 
post  on  the  crest  of  the  bluff,  about  fifty  yards 
from  the  camp,  where  there  was  clear  ground 
and  a  sky-line  to  watch.  He  had  been  there 
about  half  an  hour,  and  was  beginning  to  enjoy 
the  desolate  grandeur  that  was  spread  around 
him,  when  suddenly,  and  without  the  slightest 
sound,  he  found  Bob  Harker  standing  by  his 
side ! 

"Don't  make  a  noise,  boss,"  said  the  guide; 
"  I  came  over  here  because  I  have  something  to 
tell  you,  and  if  we  are  overheard,  it'll  mean  an 
unhealthy  time  in  store  for  both  of  us.  You 
know  them  nice  beauties  we're  camping  with? 
Wal,  I  kind  o*  misdoubted  'em  from  the  first,  for 
they're  a  pretty  tough  crowd.  So,  just  now, 
I  thought  I'd  go  and  take  a  look  at  'cm  before 
turning  in;  and  I  wormed  myself  round  behind 
the  waggons  to  where  they're  lying,  with  the 
half-breed  along  of 'em,  and  the  very  first  words 
I  heard  was  them  discussing  whether  they  hadn't 
better  wipe  you  and  me  out.  It  seems  they're 
mighty  keen   set    on    your   shooting-irons,   and 


84  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

they've  found  out  that  you've  got  a  keg  of 
whisky  in  the  waggon.  They  allowed  that  / 
might  give  some  trouble,  but  they  didn't  think 
much  o'  you,  boss  !  One  of  them  was  to  pick 
you  off  when  you  was  stalking  game  to-morrow, 
while  the  other  three  settled  me !  " 

"And  Muddy,"  asked  Jack,  "is  he  in  this 
precious  plot  too?  I  could  have  sworn  he  meant 
honestly  by  us." 

"  And  you'd  be  right,"  was  the  reply,  "  for 
Muddy's  on  the  square  this  time-  When  the 
others  had  done  talking,  he  sat  and  thought  for 
a  minute,  and  then  he  says,  '  Look  here,  boys,' 
says  he,  'there's  only  four  of  you,  now  Charley's 
gone  back  to  the  post  for  the  burying-party, 
and  there's  three  of  us.  Now,  I  can  lick  any 
two  of  you,  and  Bob  wouldn't  grumble  over  the 
responsibility  of  the  other  two,  while  the  boss 
saw  fair-play.  So  I  rather  think  we've  got  the 
draw  on  you'  this  time,  and  you  may  as  well 
chuck  up  the  game.'  Of  course  they  growled  a 
bit,  and  they  tried  to  make  him  see  things 
different,  but  the  half-breed  he  stuck  to  his 
guns,  and  so  they  said  they'd  give  it  up ;  but 
we'd  better  keep  our  eyes  peeled,  all  the  same." 

"Bravo,  Muddy!"  said  Jack.  "Somehow  I 
felt  sure  he  was  straight.     I'm  glad  you've  told 


A  Midnight   Vigil.  85 

me  this,  because  of  course  I'll  keep  a  brighter 
lookout;  but  if  it  comes  to  blows,  there's  no 
fear  of  our  not  being  able  to  lick  those  black- 
guards." 

"  Oh,  we'll  soon  settle  with  them  if  they  begin 
to  play  tricks,"  replied  Bob  ;  "but  I'm  going  to 
turn  in  now,  so  call  me  at  one  o'clock,  and  — 
good-night." 

The  hours  passed  quickly  and  with  no  further 
incident,  rather  to  Jack's  surprise,  considering 
the  afternoon's  adventure,  the  character  of  their 
companions,  and  the  fact  that  the  Rapahoes 
were  reported  "  out."  He  found  his  vigil,  in 
the  silent  charm  of  the  prairie  at  midnight,  so 
little  irksome  that  it  was  nearer  2  than  1  A.M. 
before  he  called  Bob  Harker,  and  himself  lay 
down  to  rest. 

When  he  awoke  the  sun  was  up,  and  the 
camp  busy  over  preparations  for  an  early  start. 
A  plunge  in  the  creek,  followed  by  a  hearty 
breakfast  of  the  inevitable  antelope-steak,  and  the 
party  were  ready  to  begin  the  day's  march,  hop- 
ing to  come  up  with  a  herd  before  long,  and  to 
have  a  good  "  bag  "  to  show  by  nightfall.     But  — 

"  The  best-laid  schemes  o'  mice  and  men,"  &c, 

and  they  had  not  gone  very  far  from  their  camp- 
ing-place when  Jack    fancied   he  could  discern 


86  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

a  man  standing  on  a  low  hill  about  a  mile  in 
front  of  them.  The  guide's  attention  being 
directed  to  the  figure,  after  a  moment's  scrutiny 
he  declared  that  not  only  was  there  a  man  on 
the  hill,  but  that  he  was  in  distress  of  some 
sort,  for  he  was  standing  with  his  arms  out- 
stretched in  the  attitude  of  crucifixion,  which 
in  the  language  of  the  plains  meant  that  he 
needed  help  badly.  So  the  two  waggons  began 
to  make  the  best  time  they  could  to  the  hills, 
crossing  the  trail  in  front  of  them.  As  the 
party  drew  nearer,  the  man  came  down  to  meet 
them,  and  then  they  saw  that  he  was  not  alone. 
Lying  in  the  road  within  twenty  paces  of  him 
were  two  stiff  and  rigid  figures,  which  at  the 
first  glance  could  be  seen  to  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  help  or  sympathy,  even  if  the  slightly  disar- 
ranged shirt  of  each  body  had  not  quickly  taken 
the  travellers'  thoughts  back  to  their  adventure 
of  yesterday. 

"  Good  heavens !  "  Jack  exclaimed  involun- 
tarily, "  this  must  be  more  work  of  the  same 
hand  !  " 

"  Ay,  and  I'll  find  out  whose  hand  before  I'm 
much  older,"  said  the  man  who  had  signalled 
for  help.  "  I  don't  know  who  this  is,"  touching 
one  corpse  lightly  with  his  foot,  "  but  this  one's 


Break-up  of  Hunting  Party.  87 

my  brother  George!  He  was  coming  from 
Denver,  and  wrote  me  he'd  be  about  here  by 
sunrise,  so  I  rode  out  to  meet  him,  and  I  found 
him  like  this  !  "  Then  the  poor  fellow  broke 
down  completely. 

"Say,  ain't  you  Pete  Taylor?"  the  guide 
asked  him  presently. 

"Yes,  and  you're  Bob  Harker;  but  I  was  so 
took  up  with  this  dreadful  business  that  I  didn't 
recognise  you  at  first.  Look  here,  this  whole- 
sale murdering  has  got  to  be  stopped  !  You're 
a  good  tracker:  won't  you  help  me  to  find  the 
brutes  that's  doing  it?  " 

"  Of  course  we'll  all  help,"  answered  Jack  and 
his  guide  simultaneously,  while  Muddy  was 
heard  to  murmur  something  about  "  shooting 
at  sight,"  which  probably  had  no  reference  to 
the  present  company. 

The  rest  of  the  men  remarked  that  they 
guessed  they  wouldn't  be  of  the  search-party, 
as  they  could  not  afford  to  miss  the  chance  of 
finding  buffalo  that  day  if  they  stuck  to  the 
trail.  After  what  he  had  heard  of  their  amiable 
intentions  the  previous  night,  Jack  was  very- 
glad  to  get  rid  of  them  on  such  easy  terms,  and 
the  others  concurring,  they  got  into  their  wag- 
gon and  were  soon  lost  to  sight,  though  not  at 
all  "  to  mcmorv  dear." 


88  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

When  they  were  gone,  the  little,  group  of 
men  around  the  bodies  began  to  look  about 
them  for  tracks. 

In  the  first  place  they  noticed  a  lot  of  hoof- 
marks  going  backwards  and  forwards  in  the 
road,  the  newest  crossing  the  others  from  north 
to  south.  They  were  all  made  by  unshod 
horses,  but  none  went  up  to  the  bodies.  The 
next  thing  was  to  carefully  examine  these ;  and 
although  they  knew  it  would  be  there,  each  man 
felt  a  chill  throughout  his  frame  as  he  saw  on 
each  breast  that  ghastly  cross. 

The  ground  on  the  hillside  was  rocky,  and 
hard  to  carry  a  trail  over,  but  they  soon  dis- 
covered that  one  of  the  men  must  have  seen  his 
murderer  advancing  upon  him  and  turned  to  run 
—  quite  fruitlessly  —  for  he  had  been  shot  in  the 
back  and  dropped  at  once.  As  for  George  Tay- 
lor, he  seemed  to  have  fallen  in  his  tracks  with- 
out a  struggle,  shot  clean  through  the  head. 
After  examining  the  two  corpses,  Muddy  knelt 
down  and  began  to  scrutinise  the  gravel,  on  which 
could  be  seen  a  few  marks.  He  looked  at  each 
in  turn,  lifting  a  fallen  leaf  from  one  or  blowing 
away  a  little  dust  from  another.  Then  he  moved 
up-hill,  observing  every  inch  of  ground,  until, 
seeming  to  have  made  up  his  mind,  and  beckon- 


On  the   Trail.  89 

ing  to  the  others,  he  led  the  way  to  a  rock  with 
some  dwarf  pines  above  it,  just  on  the  shoulder 
where  the  hill  dipped  both  ways.  From  this 
point  it  was  possible  to  see  for  miles  while  being 
perfectly  concealed  from  the  view  of  any  one 
passing  along  the  road.  Beyond  the  rock  they 
found  the  scrub-pine  boughs  were  bent  down  to 
make  a  shade,  and  the  grass  was  flattened  in  two 
places  facing  the  road.  There  was  the  ambush, 
and  there  the  assassins  had  hidden :  for  it  was 
becoming  evident  that  there  had  been  two  at 
least.  Jack  caught  sight  of  something  in  a  tuft 
of  buffalo-grass,  and  stooping  quickly,  he  picked 
up  an  empty  metallic  cartridge. 

"  Winchester  carbine  did  this  business,"  he 
remarked. 

"  Right  you  are,  boss  !  "  said  Bob.  "  Now  we 
must  find  out  where  the  horses  were  hid,  and 
then  we'll  follow  the  trail  if  it  takes  us  over  the 
Rio  Grande!" 

They  soon  discovered  that  the  horses  had  been 
feeding  and  resting  a  little  lower  down,  for  there 
they  came  upon  a  piece  of  ground  which  was 
simply  a  mass  of  unshod  tracks.  Muddy  stopped 
to  puzzle  them  out,  while  Jack  consulted  with  the 
old  guide  as  to  the  best  thing  to  be  done. 

To  find  the  murderers  and  give  them  a  "  long 


oo  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

rope  and  a  short  shrift "  they  were  resolved,  but 
so  far  it  was  impossible  to  say  how  many  there 
were  in  the  gang;  and  after  the  long  chase  they 
were  likely  to  have,  it  would  be  a  pity  to  let  any 
of  these  ruffians  slip  through  their  fingers  for 
want  of  sufficient  numbers,  as  of  course,  with  the 
record  they  had  against  them,  not  one  of  the 
hunted  men  would  allow  himself  to  be  taken 
alive  if  he  could  help  it. 

It  was  finally  decided  that,  as  Pete  Taylor 
would  naturally  be  anxious  to  dispose  decently 
of  his  brother's  remains,  he  should  take  the  two 
bodies  in  the  waggon  back  to  Alma  —  the  place 
from  which  he  had  that  morning  started — and 
there  despatch  a  posse,  with  instructions  to  meet 
the  search-party  at  a  waggon-pass  on  the  red 
hills,  whither  both  Bob  and  Muddy  felt  sure  the 
trail  would  lead.  Should  they  prove  to  be  mis- 
taken as  to  this,  one  of  them  would  ride  back 
to  meet  the  reinforcement.  Pete  agreed  to  the 
plan,  saying  that  he  should  be  of  the  party  start- 
ing from  Alma. 

As  soon  as  he  had  left  with  his  terrible  load, 
Jack  and  his  companions  held  a  council  of  war, 
chiefly  that  Bob  and  Muddy  might  compare 
their  discoveries  before  starting  on  what  they 
all  felt  would  be  a  desperate  undertaking.     Both 


Council  of  War.  91 

men  were  sure  that  there  had  been  nearly  a 
dozen  horses,  though  it  was  impossible  as  yet 
to  say  how  many  were  mounted.  Also,  some  of 
these  horses  had  been  scattered  just  below,  but 
all  had  crossed  the  road  in  two  bands,  and  head- 
ing south,  would  be  bound  to  go  by  the  waggon- 
road  gap.  If  on  reaching  this  the  trail  bent 
east,  then  Bob  was  certain  of  coming  up  with 
the  murderers  by  the  next  night;  for  in  that 
case  they  could  only  be  in  one  place  —  a  spot 
known  as  the  "  Lost  Park."  Bob  said  he  had 
always  believed  he  was  the  only  person  who 
knew  the  way  into  it,  but  he  began  to  think  that 
it  was  the  hiding-place  of  the  men  they  were  in 
search  of.  He  added  that  he  was  pretty  sure 
now  of  the  identity  of  one  of  them. 

"  Look  at  this!  "  he  exclaimed,  pointing  to  a 
mark  on  the  ground  which  Jack  could  hardly 
see,  although  in  course  of  time  he  became  no 
bad  tracker  himself —  "  look  at  that  point !  It's 
no  more  a  ranchman's  boot  than  it's  a  mocca- 
sin !  It's  a  sharp-toed,  Southern-made  boot 
And  don't  you  two  see  something  else  peculiar 
about  it?" 

"  It  seems   to   be  a  good  size,  doesn't  it  ? " 
ventured  Jack. 

"  Size !      It's  just  thirteen  and  a  half  inches, 


92  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

and  there's  only  one  man  /  ever  heard  on  as 
carries  a  hoof  like  that  around  with  him !  But 
we  mustn't  waste  time  talking,  so  let's  be  off." 

They  mounted  the  led  horses  and  started  in  a 
bee-line  for  a  low  range  of  hills,  which  they 
could  see  from  where  they  had  been  standing, 
although  the  hills  were  at  least  fifteen  miles  off. 
They  reached  the  gap  at  which  they  were  to 
meet  the  others  before  nightfall,  and  as  they  had 
to  wait  three  hours  or  more  before  the  party 
could  arrive  from  Alma,  they  got  a  little  sleep, 
after  Bob  and  Muddy  had  satisfied  themselves 
that  the  trail  did  turn  off  east,  as  they  had  ex- 
pected. Another  trail,  coming  from  the  south, 
joined  the  one  they  had  been  following  at  the 
gap.  By-and-by  the  "  boys,"  led  by  Pete  Taylor, 
began  to  drop  in  one  by  one,  and  dismounting, 
asked  eagerly  for  news. 

"  Wal,"  began  Bob,  "  I  guess  we're  more 
than  enough  to  handle  the  cusses,  for  Muddy 
and  me  thinks  there  's  only  two  of  'em,  with  five 
loose  horses  running  free.  There  may  be  more 
where  they're  camped,  but  it  isn't  likely.  We'd 
better  start  in  about  two  hours,  so  as  to  get  into 
cover  of  the  woods  by  daylight.  There  is  only 
one  pass  into  the  place  they're  bound  for,  so  we 
can  follow  them  at  our  leisure :   we've  sot   the 


The  Probable  Criminal.  93 

brutes  caged  this  time  !  And  now  I'll  tell  you, 
chaps,  who  it  is  as  you're  after :  it's  that  big 
Mexican  cuss  they  had  in  the  Denver  legisla- 
ture—  him  and  a  pard  !  I've  never  seen  him, 
but  they  say  he's  the  strongest  man  south  of 
the  State  line;  and  as  to  shooting  —  well,  any 
of  you  as  gets  a  chance  of  drawing  a  bead  on 
him  had  better  shoot  straight,  if  ever  you  did  in 
your  lives." 

Two  hours  later  the  whole  party  moved  on, 
and  before  daylight  were  safely  hidden  in  the 
timbered  slopes  of  the  range.  There  was  no 
difficulty  about  tracking  now,  for  apparently  the 
murderers  had  felt  safe  here,  and  had  made  no 
attempt  to  hide  the  broad  fresh  trail,  leading 
ever  upward  and  onward.  About  noon  a  halt 
was  called,  in  order  that  a  hurried  breakfast 
might  be  eaten.  Then  with  increased  caution 
the  men  resumed  their  march,  until  a  small 
glade  was  reached,  where  the  horses  were  un- 
saddled and  turned  loose.  Beyond  this  glade  the 
canon  narrowed  and  became  steeper.  It  was 
cumbered  by  fallen  trees  and  immense  boulders, 
shadowed  by  great  yellow  pines  which  met  over- 
head, darkening  and  obscuring  the  prospect. 

At  last  the  top  of  the  pass  was  reached,  and 
through  the  tangle  of  underbrush  could  be  seen, 


94  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

some  hundreds  of  feet  below,  an  exquisite  little 
park,  about  two  miles  long  and  half  a  mile 
broad.  This  glen  was  completely  walled  in  by 
precipitous  cliffs  covered  with  dense  pine-forests. 
In  the  centre  of  the  park  was  one  small  clump 
of  timber,  from  which  a  thin  stream  of  smoke 
was  visible  to  the  watching  eyes  that  looked 
down  eagerly,  certain  of  their  prey  at  last. 
Cautiously  they  made  their  way  along  the  steep 
trail,  till  they  reached  the  heavy  fringe  of  timber 
clothing  the  foot  of  the  cliffs,  which  towered 
above  them.  Then  they  paused  for  a  whispered 
consultation.  The  difficulty  now,  having  treed 
their  bear,  was  how  to  bring  him  down ;  for 
there  was  a  level  sweep  of  grass,  with  no  shelter, 
between  the  pursuers  and  the  pursued,  and  if 
they  attempted  to  cross  this,  the  enemy  could 
sit  in  his  thicket  and  pick  them  off  at  his  leisure. 
After  some  discussion,  the  men  decided  to  stop 
where  they  were  until  about  an  hour  before  sun- 
rise, when  the  two  ruffians  would  most  likely  be 
sleeping  —  that  is,  if  they  ever  slept  at  all  —  and 
then,  working  carefully  across  the  open  on  three 
sides,  before  it  grew  light,  be  ready  to  fire  the 
instant  a  leaf  in  the  thicket  stirred. 

"  But  why  not  rush  the  camp,  as  soon  as  it  is 
dark  enough  to  get  there  without  being  seen?  " 
asked  Jack. 


Preparing  to  Attack.  95 

"  Rush  the  camp  !  "  repeated  Bob,  with  much 
scorn ;  "  can't  you  see  there's  a  lot  of  dead 
wood  on  that  grass,  and  the  first  twig  a  green- 
horn snapped  our  birds  would  be  off,  and  ten 
to  one  we  should  miss  them.  No;  we  must 
wait  until  we  can  see  to  shoot;  unless  they 
build  a  big  fire,  which,  not  being  tenderfoots, 
they  ain't  fools  enough  to  do." 

Crushed  by  this  scathing  reply,  Jack  decided 
not  to  offer  any  more  advice  just  then.  After  a 
slight  and  silent  supper  of  cold  meat  and  bis- 
cuits, they  all  lay  down  to  get  a  little  sleep, 
except,  of  course,  the  sentry.  The  night  passed 
quickly.  The  moon  sank  behind  the  moun- 
tains, and  a  denser  darkness  settled  on  the 
valley;  but  as  the  sharp  chill  which  precedes 
the  dawn  caused  the  sleepers  to  turn  uneasily  in 
their  blankets,  the  sentry  went  round,  and,  with- 
out a  word  being  spoken,  awoke  them  all. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  first  three  men  detailed 
to  advance  on  the  pine-clump  from  the  opposite 
side  had  started.  Ten  minutes  later  the  rest, 
among  whom  was  Jack,  moved  silently  beyond 
the  dense  shadow  of  the  wood,  and  one  by  one 
they  crouched  and  crept  towards  the  solitary 
thicket  two  hundred  yards  off  in  the  open. 
Then  a  long  wait  comes,  while  the  stars  grow 


g6  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

fainter,  and  the  shadows  under  the  great  pines 
of  a  less  opaque  blackness  —  the  only  sounds 
breaking  the  deadly  silence  being  the  bellow  of 
a  wapiti  and  the  occasional  hoot  of  an  owl ; 
until,  as  the  dawn  strengthens,  even  these  are 
still  —  so  still  that  when  a  muffled  figure  in  the 
midst  of  the  pine-clump  slowly  rises  and  begins 
to  throw  an  armful  of  wood  on  the  dying  fire, 
the  slight  sound  rings  like  thunder  in  the  ears 
of  the  listeners.  He  stoops,  rises  again,  as  a 
sharp  whiplike  crack  passes  through  the  air, 
and  then  falls  back,  tossing  the  blanket  wildly. 
Then  —  for  an  instant  only  —  another  figure  is 
seen  leaping  a  fallen  tree,  on  which  two  saddles 
are  resting.  There  are  two  more  hurried  shots, 
and  —  dead  silence  ! 

The  part}'  waited  a  few  moments  before  begin- 
ning to  advance  cautiously  through  the  under- 
wood to  a  small  natural  clearing  in  the  centre, 
from  which  a  steady  stream  of  smoke  arose.  A 
fallen  tree  sheltered  one  side  of  it,  and  behind 
this,  with  his  glazing  eyes  staring  up  to  the 
brightening  sky,  lay  old  "  Big  Foot,"  the  man 
they  had  expected  to  find.  A  revolver  was 
tightly  clutched  in  one  hand,  and  his  grey  face 
was  distorted  by  such  a  scowl  of  mingled  horror 
and  hatred  as  haunted  those  who  saw  it  to  their 


A   Gruesome  Diary.  97 

own  last  day.  Near  by,  fallen  right  across  the 
camp-fire,  lay  the  body  of  his  nephew  and  partner 
in  crime.  What  he  might  have  carried  about 
him  was  never  known,  for  his  clothes  were  on 
fire;  but  in  his  uncle's  breast-pocket  they  found 
a  mass-book  and  a  diary,  and  in  the  diary  were 
twenty-seven  dates  marked  with  a  black  cross, 
corresponding  to  the  ghastly  red  signs  which  he 
had  drawn  upon  the  breasts  of  his  many  victims. 
Great  crimes  are  not  always  bred  of  great  in- 
juries, for  this  was  the  trivial  cause  of  his  fiend- 
ish hate  and  vengeance.  It  seemed  that  when 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico  had  a  joint-legislature, 
he  was  one  of  the  Mexican  delegates  chosen  to 
go  to  Denver.  Of  course  the  two  sets  of  men 
detested  each  other,  and  the  Colorado  "boys" 
were  for  ever  playing  tricks  on  the  Mexicans, 
who  retaliated  when  they  could.  But  this  par- 
ticular Mexican  took  it  all  in  earnest,  and  when 
he  was  finally  christened  "Big  Foot,"  in  delicate 
allusion  to  the  size  of  his  extremities,  he  fairly 
boiled  over,  and  left  the  court-house,  cursing  the 
whole  American  nation  (including  the  Canadas), 
and  swearing  he  would  be  bitterly  revenged  upon 
his  tormentors.  That  was  the  last  the  joint- 
legislature  of  Colorado  and  New  Mexico  ever 
saw  of  him  ;  but  they  heard  that  he  had  made 
7 


98  An  Adventure  on  the  Plains. 

a  bee-line  for  his  own  country,  swearing  like  a 
"singed  cat"  as  he  went.  Of  course  the  "boys" 
were  simply  charmed  when  they  found  they  had 
driven  him  out,  never  heeding  his  threats,  nor 
remembering  how  a  member  of  a  Southern  race 
will  keep  his  hatred  warm  year  in  and  year  out' 
until  he  sees  a  safe  chance  of  gratifying  it.  And 
it  is  doubtful  whether  even  in  his  last  agony  old 
Big  Foot  ceased  to  gloat  over  the  achievements 
of  his  deadly  hate,  and  the  thought  that  wherever 
his  nickname  was  heard,  there  also  would  be 
told  the  story  of  his  revenge. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SPORT  IN   COLORADO. 

FRONTIER    LAW  —  FESTIVITIES   AT  ALMA  —  RENEWED   PURPOSE 

OF    SHOOTING    BIG     GAME  SETTING    OUT     TO     THE     ROCKY 

MOUNTAINS — ABUNDANT  SPORT,  AND  EPISODES  OF  A  VARIED 
CHARACTER —  UEAR-TRAPPING    IN    COMPANY    OF    A    PARTNER 

ANOTHER      BEAR     STORY  A      CLOSE      SHAVE  —  ACTIVE 

HOSTILITY  OF  THE  UTES WORK-OX  VEIiSUS  STEER-BEEF  — 

MEETS  GENERAL  FREMONT,  THE  DISCOVERER  OF  CALI- 
FORNIA —  RESOLVES     TO     SEE     THE      "  GOLDEN      STATE   "  — 

EFFECTS    OF     CIVILISATION      IN     THE      WESTERN    STATES  

DENVER  AND  LEADVILLE  AT  THE  OUTSET  OF  THEIR  HIS- 
TORY —  IMPRESSIONS    OF     SAN     FRANCISCO  —  PROSPECTING 

IN    SACRAMENTO    VALLEY THE    GOLD-DIGGERS    AND    THEIR 

WAYS  SUFFERINGS  FROM  FEVER  AND  AGUE A  DES- 
PERATE REMEDY  —  PERVERSITY  OF  HIS  LUCK  EVEN  WITH 
DISEASES — BACK    TO    COLORADO. 

AFTER  the  bodies  had  been  disposed  of,  and  the 
fatigue  of  the  exciting  chase  and  still  more  ex- 
citing "  kill "  had  worn  off  a  little,  the  party  of 
trackers  began  to  climb  up  the  steep  cliff  and 
wend  their  way  to  the  place  where  they  had  left 
their  horses;  discussing  with  much  prospective 
joy,  meanwhile,  the  rage  of  the  sheriff  of  the 
county  when  he  found  that  two  such  criminals 
as  he  was  scarcely  likely  to  see  again  had  met 
their  deserts  without  his  professional  assistance  ! 


ioo  Sport  in  Colorado. 

"  He's  not  a  bad  sort,"  said  Pete  Taylor,  "  but 
he's  too  fond  of  bringing  in  the  law  if  he  sees  a 
chance,  and  we  don't  need  no  law  when  we  go 
out  to  settle  up  with  chaps  like  them  we've  been 
after."  In  which  sentiment  the  "  boys  "  heart- 
ily concurred. 

Once  started,  they  met  with  little  or  no  inci- 
dent on  the  homeward  way;  but  it  was  a  long 
ride,  and  they  were  a  dusty  and  weary  crowd 
that  rode  into  Alma  a  week  from  the  day  of 
their  departure,  with  stiffness  in  their  limbs,  but 
conscious  pride  writ  large  upon  their  faces.  Of 
course,  directly  their  tale  was  heard,  the  entire 
population  insisted  on  "standing  drinks."  For- 
tunately it  numbered  less  than  a  thousand  all 
told ;  but  even  a  few  hundred  drinks  taken  to- 
gether will  prove  cloying  to  the  thirstiest  soul ; 
and  before  he  got  away  even  Muddy  felt  that 
for  one  short  period  of  Elysium  he  had  ab- 
sorbed as  much  whisky  as  he  could  hold.  As 
for  Jack  Jebb  !  it  was  considered  in  the  town 
that  any  man  who  could  keep  his  head  clear 
and  his  legs  well  in  hand  after  several  hours 
of  very  mixed  refreshments,  no  longer  deserved 
the  opprobrious  name  of  "  tenderfoot  "  ;  and 
any  Alma  boy  who  heard  him  so  spoken  of 
afterwards,  considered  it  a  personal  matter  call- 


Starting  Afresh.  101 

ing  for  the  use  of  shooting-irons.  Owing  to 
propitious  circumstances,  he  had  seen  more  of 
prairie  life  in  a  week  than  the  average  traveller 
might  in  a  year,  and  now  he  was  anxious  to  pur- 
sue the  original  object  of  his  journey  —  the 
shooting  of  big  game.  Bob  Harker  was  will- 
ing to  accompany  him;  but  Muddy  decided 
that  he  had  had  enough  excitement  for  one 
while,  and  guessed  he  would  return  to  the  quiet 
pursuits  of  a  Government  scout  —  tracking  bands 
of  marauding  Indians  and  warning  outlying 
camps  of  their  coming,  always,  of  course,  with 
the  certainty  of  being  scalped  if  caught.  Poor 
Muddy  !  It  was  the  general  opinion  that  there 
was  a  good  deal  more  whisky  than  "  cussed- 
ness  "  in  him  as  a  rule,  but  it  was  his  fate  event- 
ually to  be  strung  up  by  vigilantes  for  shooting 
a  man  —  who  doubtless  would  have  been  be- 
forehand with  him  had  he  been  as  handy  with 
his  gun. 

Well,  Jack  and  the  old  guide  started  afresh 
with  their  waggon,  and  began  journeying  west- 
ward over  the  wide  plains,  where  the  snow-clad 
Rocky  Mountains  stretched  away  in  their  weird 
beauty  on  the  horizon,  for  many  and  many  a 
desolate  league.  Frequently  for  days  and  weeks 
the  travellers  met  no  living  soul,  save  an  occa- 


102  Sport  in  Colorado. 

sional  band  of  trappers,  or  a  solitary  Indian 
brave.  But  the  lack  of  human  interest  in  the 
scenery  was  amply  compensated  for  by  such 
sights  as  great  herds  of  buffalo  spreading  out 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  fading  away 
into  a  dim  brown-blue  in  the  distance ;  or  the 
graceful  antelope  feeding  down  towards  water 
black  with  wild  fowl.  Many  things  they  saw 
which  can  never  again  gladden  the  hunter's 
heart,  for  the  remorseless  tide  of  civilisation, 
which,  twenty  years  ago,  was  chafing  and 
fretting  against  the  long  chain  of  the  Rockies, 
has  now  burst  through  their  rugged  passes. 
The  buffalo  is  gone.  The  wapiti  is  getting 
scarce.  The  dirty  Indian  brave  has  given  place 
to  the  not  much  cleaner  cowboy.  The  trappers' 
camps  and  waggons  have  been  superseded  by 
railways  and  the  great  American  caravanseries 
called  hotels;  and  one  wonders  whether  the 
plains  have  gained  in  any  other  way  what  they 
have  lost  in  picturesqueness. 

Men  now  hustle  and  jostle  each  other,  and 
often  fall  in  the  long  battle  of  life,  because  they 
have  created  for  themselves  so  many  artificial 
wants  which  must  be  gratified  before  they  can 
be  content  ;  while  in  the  old  days,  with  the 
keen,  fresh  air  of  the  prairies  about  him,  the 


Fascination  of  the  Free  Life.  103 

thousand  interests  of  the  hunter  to  occupy  him, 
a  man  needed  little  but  his  bed  and  his  dinner. 
And  surely  sleep  is  never  so  restful  as  by  a 
camp-fire,  or  a  meal  so  refreshing  as  when 
one  must  kill  the  game,  and  cook  it  over  the 
glowing  wood,  before  it  can  be  eaten. 

Many  a  fine  old  buffalo-bull  fell  to  Jack's  gun, 
in  the  years  he  spent  wandering  about  the  plains. 
For  the  fascination  of  the  free  life  grew  upon 
him,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  long  months 
of  "  camping  out"  —  sometimes  with  the  guide, 
sometimes  with  a  chance  companion,  and  often 
quite  alone.  Occasionally  when  game  was  scarce 
he  would  go  to  sleep  hungry,  but  generally  he 
shot  all  he  wanted,  and  did  a  fair  trade  in  skins 
besides.  Plenty  of  narrow  escapes  he  had  too, 
from  Indians  and  bears,  —  the  former,  eminently 
serious  adventures;  the  latter,  sometimes  funny 
ones.  He  once  "joined  camp"  for  a  time  with 
an  American  colonel,  also  out  after  game.  Re- 
turning to  their  tent  one  day,  to  their  delight 
they  came  across  bear-tracks  close  to  it  —  the 
brute  being  tempted  to  the  camp  doubtless  by 
the  scent  of  the  fresh  meat  hanging  up.  As 
he  made  off  too  quickly  for  them  to  get  a  shot, 
they  set  to  work  to  construct  a  "  fall-trap  "  —  a 
thing  rather   like  a  gigantic    mouse-trap,   built 


104  Sport  in  Colorado. 

with  heavy  logs,  and  usually  quite  efficacious. 
The  drawback,  however,  to  this  apparatus  in 
the  mind  of  the  sportsman  is,  that  unless  the 
prey  is  to  be  ignominiously  murdered  by  being 
shot  at  through  chinks  in  the  logs,  the  door  of 
the  trap  must  be  lifted  while  the  hunter  takes 
his  chance  of  a  flying  shot;  with  the  prospect 
of  an  animated  five  minutes  before  him  should 
he  miss ! 

Well,  after  preparing  a  safe  shelter  for  their 
expected  visitor,  the  two  men  retired  to  rest, 
and  early  next  morning  they  went  to  see  if  he 
had  arrived.  They  found  him  securely  fastened 
down  and  savagely  worrying  the  logs  in  his 
efforts  to  get  out.  Of  course,  his  captors  were 
charmed  with  their  success,  and  at  once  began 
to  discuss  which  of  them  should  lift  the  door, 
while  the  other  stood  at  the  post  of  honour  and 
took  the  shot.  They  were  both  good  sports- 
men, and  neither  liked  to  deprive  the  other  of 
the  first  chance  at  the  enemy,  so  they  argued 
the  matter  for  some  time;  until,  by  a  happy 
inspiration,  the  colonel  proposed  settling  it  by 
a  game  of  cards  —  the  winner  to  shoot,  while 
the  loser  turned  the  bear  out  for  him.  There 
happened  to  be  no  smooth  piece  of  ground 
close  by,  so  they  adjourned  to  a  flat  rock  about 


Trapping  Bear.  105 

fifty  yards  off,  and,  with  cartridges  and  buck- 
shot for  "  chips,"  settled  down  to  a  game  of 
poker.  The  game  soon  began  to  get  exciting 
on  its  own  account,  as  the  cards  favoured  first 
one  and  then  the  other;  and  little  bright-eyed 
chipmunks  and  busy  squirrels  ran  to  and  fro 
between  the  players,  attracting  no  notice  at  all. 
They  had  been  playing  for  two  hours,  and  the 
sun  had  climbed  far  up  towards  the  meridian, 
when  with  a  laugh,  the  colonel  raked  in  Jack's 
last  buckshot  and  won  —  winning,  besides  the 
stakes,  the  right  to  generously  present  his  com- 
panion with  the  first  shot.  They  reloaded  their 
rifles,  and  softly  approached  the  trap,  Jack  get- 
ting into  a  position  which  would  give  him  an 
excellent  shot  when  the  bear  bolted,  while  the 
colonel  quietly  stepped  on  the  roof  in  order  to 
lift  the  door.  As  he  did  so,  he  turned  his  face 
slowly  towards  his  friend.  A  look  of  misery 
and  disgust  was  in  his  eyes,  as,  with  remarks 
that  it  would   take  two  cowboys  and  a  muleteer 

to  do  justice  to,   he  said,  " ! ! ! 

!  if  the ! ! !  brute  hasn't  eaten 

his  way  out,  while  we've  been  fooling  with  those 

! ! ! !  cards  !  " 

This  colonel  afterwards  became  quite  a  noted 
bear-hunter  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  strange 


io6  Sport  in  Colorado. 

to  say,  he  never  got  "  mauled,"  though  on  one 
occasion  nothing  but  straight  shooting  saved 
his  life.  His  usual  practice  was  to  stalk  his 
game  while  it  was  feeding,  as,  when  a  bear  has 
got  its  head  well  down  over  its  food,  and  is 
thoroughly  absorbed  in  the  business  on  hand, 
the  hunter  can  creep  up  within  easy  range  and 
get  a  capital  shot.  No  old  bear-hunter  will 
risk  a  long  shot  at  a  bear  in  the  open,  unless 
there  is  cover  of  some  sort  near,  or  he  is  so 
sure  of  his  shooting  that  he  knows  his  left- 
hand  barrel  can  be  depended  upon  if  the  beast 
is  only  slightly  wounded  and  charges  him.  But 
on  this  occasion  the  colonel,  who  had  been 
working  round  the  crest  of  a  mountain,  sud- 
denly, while  crossing  a  steep  gully  filled  with 
snow,  caught  sight  of  three  bears  about  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards  below  him.  He  was  armed 
with  a  double  "500  express,  and  he  felt  that  the 
shot  was  too  tempting  to  be  resisted,  especially 
since  the  snow-slide  was  so  steep  that  he  would 
have  plenty  of  time  for  reloading,  supposing 
any  of  the  brutes  began  scrambling  up  towards 
him. 

The  old  she-bear,  with  her  two  half-grown 
cubs,  caught  sight  of  him  at  the  same  moment 
that  he  first  saw  them,  and  stood,  lumped  to- 


Narrow  Shave.  107 

gether,  looking  up  at  him  as  he  shot  at  them 
with  both  barrels.  One  cub  rolled  over  dead, 
and  the  mother  was  evidently  hit,  for  she  went 
spinning  round,  savagely  biting  at  her  shoulder. 
But  there  was  plenty  of  fight  left  in  her, 
for  in  another  instant  she  and  the  remain- 
ing cub  were  floundering  and  scrambling  up 
the  steep  snow-slide  towards  their  aggressor. 
He  reloaded  quickly,  and  was  in  the  act  of 
crouching  down  again  to  get  a  steady  shot, 
when  his  foot  slipped  from  under  him,  throw- 
ing him  violently  on  his  back,  and  before  he 
had  time  even  to  think,  he  was  sliding  rapidly 
down  the  slopes  of  frozen  snow  towards  the  two 
bears,  who  were  climbing  up  to  take  their  re- 
venge for  the  death  of  the  cub.  Down,  down 
he  went,  almost  falling  over  the  old  bear,  which 
made  a  vicious  grab  at  him  with  her  paw  as  he 
passed;  but  fortunately  her  wounded  shoulder 
failed  her,  so  she  contented  herself  with  turning 
round,  and  half  sliding,  half  rolling,  she  followed 
him  down.  The  colonel  slid  gracefully  past  the 
dead  cub,  and  so  did  its  mother;  but  luckily  for 
the  hunter,  she  managed  to  stop  herself  an  in- 
stant to  growl  over  her  defunct  offspring,  which 
maternal  tribute  of  affection  gave  the  colonel 
time  to   get  to  the   bottom  of  his  involuntary 


108  Sport  in  Colorado. 

slide.  It  was  probably  less  than  ten  seconds 
from  the  start  when  he  found  himself  standing 
on  terra  firma  again,  badly  shaken,  and  minus 
both  his  cartridge-pouch  and  an  important  por- 
tion of  his  attire ! 

He  had  kept  his  head  better  than  he  had  his 
footing,  and  had  never  let  go  his  rifle,  which, 
thanks  be  given !  was  loaded.  The  bear  was 
now  scrambling  down  again ;  and  with  not  a 
tree  in  sight,  and  his  cartridges  lying  round 
loose  on  the  mountain-side,  the  colonel  knew 
that  a  miss,  or  even  a  poor  shot,  would  seal  his 
fate.  It  was  life  or  death,  and  he  was  still  shak- 
ing so  much  from  his  rapid  descent  through  the 
air  that  he  could  scarcely  hold  the  rifle.  He 
dared  not  shoot,  and  the  bear  was  only  thirty 
yards  off.  A  quick  backward  glance  showed 
him  a  boulder  not  far  away;  he  backed  towards 
it,  got  behind,  and  waited.  On  came  the  great 
brute :  she  passed  the  end  of  the  snow-slide, 
made  a  short  rush  over  the  rocks,  and  then 
reared  up  and  sprang  forward,  not  five  paces 
from  where  the  colonel  awaited  her,  his  hand 
steady  enough  now.  The  express  rang  out, 
and  she  dropped  dead,  literally  at  the  hunter's 
feet.  Not  fifty  yards  away  the  half-grown  cub 
was  making  off.  pausing  a  second  to  look  back 


Life  in  the  Rockies.  109 

for  its  mother — a  fatal  pause,  for  there  was 
still  another  cartridge  left,  and  an  instant  later 
the  cub  was  rolling  down  the  slope. 

The  colonel's  escape  was  a  narrow  one ;  but 
he  always  maintained  that  three  bears  made  a 
very  good  "bag"  for  the  small  expenditure  of 
four  cartridges  and  a  pair  of  old  breeches. 

Life  in  the  Rockies  was  never  wanting  in  inci- 
dent in  those  days.  There  were  times  when  the 
scattered  camps  wished  that  it  had  been ;  when, 
for  instance,  the  Utes  were  reported  restless,  and 
there  were  rumours  of  the  sun-dance  being  held, 
and  of  the  young  braves  insisting  on  being  paid 
nothing  but  ammunition  for  their  furs.  Then 
those  white  men  who  were  wise  fell  back  quickly 
on  a  common  centre;  but  sometimes  an  outly- 
ing camp  would  be  surprised,  and  then,  no  matter 
how  desperate  the  fight,  its  result  was  certain, 
and  soon  nothing  was  left  of  what  a  few  moments 
before  had  been  a  busy  active  community  but  a 
pile  of  quivering  bodies  and  scalpless  heads. 

A  rumoured  Indian  rising  once  gave  Jack  Jebb 
an  excellent  opportunity  of  getting  even  with  a 
beef-contractor  who  had  sold  him  an  old  work-ox 
for  a  steer,  by  frightening  the  man  nearly  out  of 
his  wits.  Jack  had  arrived  safely  at  a  large 
camp,  and  with  several  others  lay  sheltering  from 


no  Sport  in  Colorado. 

a  cutting  wind  among  some  rocks,  when  he 
caught  sight  of  the  contractor  and  a  couple  of 
men  some  hundred  yards  below,  also  hastening 
into  security  from  the  dreaded  Utes.  He  thought 
first  of  putting  a  bullet  into  a  tree-trunk  close  to 
the  contractor's  ear,  but  a  better  plan  suggested 
itself.  Half-a-dozen  men  lay  down  behind  the 
rocks,  pointing  their  rifles  over  them,  while  the 
contractor  and  his  companions  went  on  climbing 
placidly,  until,  when  within  about  thirty  yards 
of  the  top,  they  stopped  and  looked  up  at  the 
rocks  above  them.  Their  looks  of  consternation 
and  amazement  when  they  saw  six  rifles  deliber- 
ately aiming  at  them  may  be  imagined,  but  can- 
not be  described.  They  had  no  cover,  not  a 
chance  of  escape,  and  not  the  smallest  glimpse 
of  anything  to  shoot  at.  Almost  automatically 
their  three  rifles  fell  to  the  ground,  and  six  arms 
were  held  high  above  three  horror-stricken 
heads. 

"  For  God's  sake,  don't  shoot !  "  they  yelled. 
"  We  ain't  armed." 

"  Then  will  you  swear  never  to  run  in  an  old 
work-ox  on  us  for  good  steer-beef?  "  they  were 
asked. 

"  D — d  if  we'll  swear  !  "  was  the  answer;  "  we 
thought  you  was  Indians,  sure." 


JebUs  Meeting  ivith  General  Fremont.     1 1 1 

It  was  about  this  date  that  Jack  first  met 
General  Fremont,  the  discoverer  of  California; 
and,  fired  by  his  glowing  accounts  of  the  "  Golden 
State,"  he  resolved  to  inspect  it  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity—  partly  because  he  had  never  been  there, 
which  with  him  was  always  an  excellent  reason 
for  starting  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but  chiefly 
because  he  wanted  to  see  what  the  placer-mining 
was  like,  in  which  nearly  the  whole  population 
of  California  was  then  engaged.  Moreover,  he 
felt  that  somehow  he  must  soon  begin  to  make 
money  himself,  for  the  years  were  slipping  im- 
perceptibly past,  and  he  was  still  in  very  much 
the  same  position  as  when  first  he  found  himself 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  In  those  days 
a  buffalo  was  worth  about  $i,  50  cents,  and  a 
bear  not  much  more;  so  hunting,  though  a  fasci- 
nating, was  not  a  very  profitable  pursuit.  Then, 
too,  all  the  world  was  beginning  to  get  infected 
with  the  mining  craze,  whether  gold,  silver,  placer, 
or  otherwise.  Nothing  was  talked  or  dreamt  of 
but  the  hidden  riches  which  could  be  found  for 
the  seeking.  Denver  was  at  that  time  a  little 
outpost  of  about  5000  inhabitants,  while  Lead- 
ville,  regarded  as  a  mining  centre,  did  not  exist 
at  all.  In  fact,  a  far-seeing  speculator  with  a 
few  dollars  in  his  pocket  could  have  bought  up 


1 1 2  Sport  in  Colorado. 

the  land  containing  the  wealthiest  mines  of 
Colorado.  Mining  was  just  the  sort  of  risky 
business,  both  physically  and  financially,  to  suit 
Jack  Jebb  to  perfection,  so  none  of  his  friends 
were  surprised  when  he  caught  the  contagion. 
Together  with  another  man  he  already  owned  a 
small  property  in  the  mountains,  which  so  far 
they  had  been  unable  to  develop  for  want  of 
working  capital,  although  they  had  each  put 
both  money  and  labour  into  it  But  at  this 
juncture  some  wealthy  friends  of  Jack's  who  had 
seen  the  little  mines  and  become  interested  in 
them  came  forward  with  an  offer  of  co-operation  ; 
and  while  his  partner  returned  to  England  with 
these  people  in  order  to  arrange  details,  Jack 
paid  his  first  visit  to  San  Francisco. 

How  lovely  it  looked  with  its  blue  sea  and 
towering  mountains,  its  gorgeous  flowers  and 
abundant  fruits,  and  the  stately  palaces  which 
even  in  those  days  were  beginning  to  rise 
upon  its  rocky  eminences.  It  is  true  that  the 
people  were-  less  cultivated  than  their  surround- 
ings, and  that  a  six-shooter  was  as  necessary  an 
article  of  attire  as  trousers ;  still  the  vigilantes 
were  hard  at  work  improving  all  that,  and  the 
charm  of  a  new  civilisation  makes  up  for  many 
defects. 


Sacramento.  1 1 3 

Jack  soon  pushed  on  to  Sacramento,  then  at 
its  very  worst  and  rowdiest ;  for  the  gold-fever 
was  at  its  height,  and  all  the  sweepings  of 
Europe  and  America  were  gathered  there,  drink- 
ing and  gambling,  fighting  and  murdering,  with 
little  restraint  and  less  compunction  —  a  "  straight 
shot "  the  only  reputation  of  any  importance. 
Jack  had  long  ceased  to  be  a  "  tenderfoot  "  ;  nor, 
with  his  stalwart  frame  and  strongly-marked 
bronzed  features,  did  he  look  like  one:  so  he 
managed  to  steer  clear  of  "  rows,"  despite  the 
damaging  facts  that  he  neither  drank  nor  played, 
and  had  the  misfortune  to  be  a  "  Britisher." 
For  one  thing,  he  did  not  stop  long  in  any  par- 
ticular mining-camp,  but  moved  on  from  one  to 
another,  trying  to  get  some  general  idea  of  the 
"  lay  of  the  land."  Crowded  as  it  was  with  a 
large  and  usually  unwashed  populace,  Sacra- 
mento could  scarcely  be  described  as  a  health 
resort  at  the  best  of  times,  but  there  was  one 
part  of  the  valley  deadlier  than  the  rest,  where 
the  air  that  was  breathed  and  the  water  that  was 
drunk  —  supposing  any  one  ever  did  drink  water 
—  seemed  to  be  impregnated  with  the  germs  of 
fever. 

Of  course  Jack's  usual  luck  induced  him  to 
make  a  week's  stay  in  this  place,  and  long  before 
8 


1 14  Sport  in  Colorado. 

the  end  of  the  week  his  old  enemy  had  found 
him  out,  and  he  was  down  with  a  bad  attack  of 
fever  and  ague.  The  local  medical  talent  —  an 
Irish  apothecary's  apprentice  —  insisted  on  his 
stopping  in  bed,  taking  quinine  by  the  pailful, 
and  above  all,  never  indulging  in  a  single  drop 
of  water  either  outwardly  or  inwardly.  Jack 
bore  this  treatment  for  some  days,  the  quinine 
of  course  making  his  head  ache  furiously,  and 
engendering  a  wild  longing  for  even  one  dip  into 
anything  cold.  Then  he  revolted,  and  watching 
his  opportunity,  the  first  time  he  was  left  alone, 
he  rolled  himself  in  a  blanket,  crawled  out  of  the 
hut  down  to  a  creek  which  ran  a  few  yards  below 
it,  there  discarded  his  blanket,  and  sat  down  to 
rest  in  the  creek  !  The  water  was  only  up  to  his 
neck,  but  he  could  obviate  that  misfortune  by 
ducking,  which  pastime  he  indulged  in  cheerfully 
for  the  next  hour.  Meanwhile  his  medical  man 
returned  to  find  the  patient  missing;  and  fully 
believing  that,  in  the  united  delirium  of  fever  and 
quinine,  the  invalid  had  destroyed  himself,  he 
roused  the  whole  camp  to  search  for  "  remains." 
The  camp  nearly  had  a  fit,  between  horror  and 
surprise,  when  it  came  upon  the  supposed  corpse 
placidly  enjoying  life  in  the  creek !  He  was 
promptly  hauled  out,  and  told  that  although  not 


Attack  of  DiphtJicria.  115 

dead  yet,  he  might  shortly  expect  his  decease 
after  such  an  escapade.  But,  strange  to  say,  the 
fever  appeared  to  have  left  him ;  and  when  the' 
turn  of  the  "  shakes  "  came  round  they  failed  to 
arrive,  so  that  his  fatal  immersion  seemed  really 
to  have  cured  him  !  —  a  fact  which  can  only  be 
accounted  for  by  the  general  contrariness  of  his 
affairs.  Any  one  else  would  have  died ;  he 
therefore  recovered. 

Even  diphtheria  took  on  a  different  form  for 
his  benefit.  Some  years  later  he  was  living 
alone  in  a  log-hut,  several  miles  from  his  nearest 
neighbour,  when  he  began  to  feel  ill  and  feverish, 
and  to  experience  an  increasing  difficulty  in 
swallowing.  This  went  on  for  a  few  days,  until 
matters  grew  so  serious  that  one  morning  he 
found  himself  unable  to  rise,  while  not  only  was 
it  impossible  to  swallow  anything,  but  it  was 
rapidly  becoming  equally  impossible  to  breathe. 
With  a  horrible  feeling  of  imminent  suffocation, 
he  started  up  in  bed  in  a  last  endeavour  to  shake 
off  the  invisible  power  which  seemed  to  be  clutch- 
ing at  his  throat,  when — possibly  induced  by 
the  sudden  movement  —  a  violent  fit  of  coughing 
came  on,  in  the  midst  of  which  what  he  after- 
wards described  as  a  thick  white  skin,  several 
inches  long,  tore   itself  away  from   his  panting 


n6  Sport  in  Colorado. 

throat,  and  he  immediately  discovered  that  his 
breathing  had  become  perfectly  easy  and  natural 
again.  In  fact,  so  well  did  he  feel  that,  seeing 
no  particular  reason  for  stopping  in  bed,  he 
shortly  afterwards  got  up  and  went  about  his 
business;  and  it  was  not  till  later  on  that  it 
dawned  upon  him  that  he  had  recovered  from  an 
attack  of  diphtheria  which  ought  to  have  killed 
him,  alone  and  unaided  as  he  was,  and  which 
could  only  have  failed  in  doing  so  through  sheer 
"  cussedness." 

But  to  return  to  Sacramento  valley.  Having 
now  spent  as  much  time  there  as  he  cared  to, 
Jack  began  to  retrace  his  way  to  Colorado,  being 
accompanied  for  some  distance  by  a  party  of 
miners  who,  having  made  their  "  pile,"  were 
hastening  to  New  York  as  the  most  promising 
place  in  which  to  get  rid  of  it  with  the  least 
delay. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

FURTHER   PURSUIT   OF   GOLD. 

PURCHASE     OF     THE     "GREAT     WHALE  "    MIXES    AT    DENVER 

JACK  JEBB'S  CONTRIBUTION  OF  MONEY  TO  THE  SCHEME  — 
ASSUMES  CHIEF  MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  MINES  —  HIS*  HEAD- 
QUARTERS—  ENJOYS    LIVING    IN    THE    ROCKY    MOUNTAINS 

BOSTON  FRIENDS  ON  A  NEIGHBOURING  PROPERTY  —  DAN- 
GERS   FROM    RAPAHOES  — THE    BRINGING-IN    OF    PROVISIONS 

THE      MAILS  SNOW-SHOEING     THE      MOST     CONVENIENT 

METHOD    OF    TRAVEL  —  ADVANTAGES    OF     THE     NORWEGIAN 

SNOW-SHOE  — AN      ADVENTUROUS      NOCTURNAL   JOURNEY  

MEETS    WITH    AN    ACCIDENT TRIES    A     BOLD    EXPERIMENT 

STRIKES   , 'AN     OLD      MINING-CAMP A     FALSE     ALARM 

HOW  "BEAR"  TRACKS  ARE  MADE  —  STORY  OF  A  GRIZZLY 
HUNT. 

WHEN  Jack  returned  to  Denver  he  found  his  friend 
awaiting  him  there,  with  the  financial  prelimi- 
naries of  the  projected  syndicate  so  satisfactorily 
arranged  that  they  were  not  only  able  to  continue 
working  the  small  mines  they  already  possessed, 
but  were  justified  in  buying  some  adjoining 
property  which  they  had  long  wished  to  add  to 
their  own.  The  present  owner  was  selling  be- 
cause he  preferred  a  reasonable  sum  down  to 
large  but  uncertain  dividends  in  the  future  — 
thereby  showing  himself  to  be  wiser  than  his 


1 1 8  FurtJier  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

generation  —  and  he  was  very  glad  to  respond 
to  the  overtures  the  partners  made  to  him. 

The  mines  rejoiced  in  the  prophetic  name  of 
the  "  Great  Whale,"  bestowed  upon  them  prob- 
ably in  modest  allusion  to  their  supposed  supe- 
riority to  all  other  mines ;  and  no  more  suitable 
title  could  have  been  found,  though  for  an 
entirely  different  reason,  for  they  were  destined 
to  swallow  all  that  was  thrust  into  their  capacious 
maw.  Jack's  contribution  was  about  .£3000, 
which  a  year  of  steady  work  was  to  develop  into 
;£i2,ooo,  besides  a  large  number  of  shares.  The 
syndicate  was  an  entirely  private  one,  and  the 
arrangement  was  that  Jack,  who  one  way  and 
another  had  picked  up  a  good  deal  of  mining 
experience  during  his  years  of  wandering,  should 
take  a  large  part  of  the  management  on  himself 
—  thereby  both  saving  expense  and  obviating 
much  of  the  reckless  waste  that  often  ruins  a 
promising  property. 

Jack  wished  for  nothing  better  than  the  labo- 
rious but  free  and  unconventional  life  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  he  was  quite  willing  to 
take  up  his  abode  there  altogether.  No  one 
knew  better  than  he  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
to  be  contended  against,  especially  in  winter, 
when  it  was  almost  impossible  to  get  from  place 


Boston  Friends  as  Neighbours.         1 19 

to  place,  through  the  driving  storms,  and  when 
frozen  extremities  were  among  the  pieasantest 
of  the  accidents  likely  to  happen  to  the  belated 
traveller.  But  in  spite  of  all  this,  the  keen  dry 
air  of  the  Rockies  was  delicious,  and  Jack  started 
in  high  spirits  for  his  headquarters — a  log-hut 
near  the  principal  mine  —  with  many  anticipa- 
tions of  the  fortune  he  was  to  make,  and  of  the 
steam-yacht  in  which  he  would  immediately 
invest  it. 

To  his  great  satisfaction  he  found  that  some 
old  Boston  friends  were  going  to  spend  a  few 
years  on  a  mining  property  they  possessed  not 
many  miles  from  his  own  location ;  and  as  there 
was  already  one  family  within  fifteen  miles,  and 
his  own  partner  would  be  backwards  and  forwards 
frequently,  the  neighbourhood  was  evidently  go- 
ing to  be  quite  populous  —  for  Colorado.  The 
little  log-cabins  each  had  a  huge  stove  in  the 
centre  of  the  room ;  for  no  ordinary  fireplace 
could  keep  out  the  bitter  cold  when  the  temper- 
ature was  below  zero,  and  water  froze  within  a 
yard  of  the  fire.  No  one  particularly  objected 
to  this  state  of  affairs,  however,  as  for  one  thing 
it  stopped  the  operations  of  "  road-agents  "  dur- 
ing the  winter,  while  even  the  Rapahoes  scarcely 
cared  to  go  out  shooting  stage-drivers,  with  every 


120  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

chance  of  perishing  themselves  in  the  snow. 
Still  they  made  occasional  sallies,  and  one  after- 
noon a  driver  came  in  with  an  arrow  through  his 
cheek  and  a  loose  tooth  in  his  throat  —  the  part 
of  the  matter  which  most  troubled  him  being 
that,  in  these  circumstances,  he  was  unable  to 
swear  properly ! 

After  getting  the  machinery  up  and  the  mines 
at  work,  the  next  thing  to  be  thought  of  was  a 
stock  of  provisions  for  the  six  months  during 
which  the  trails  would  probably  be  snowed  up. 
Game  was  plentiful,  and  Jack  soon  supplied  the 
larder  with  sufficient  meat,  while  groceries  were 
carted  from  the  nearest  settlement.  Once  the 
snows  began,  it  was  the  rarest  thing  for  any  one 
to  leave  the  mines  before  spring.  Now  and  then 
a  man  would  go  for  the  mails,  but  probably  not 
once  a-month.  Therefore  Jack  found  that  he 
would  have  to  make  the  expedition  alone  when 
he  wished  to  visit  the  various  mines  in  the  dis- 
trict, all  three  of  which  were  chiefly  under  his 
control ;  so  that  he  was  likely  to  get  quite  as 
much  solitary  snow-shoeing  as  he  wanted  before 
the  winter  was  over.  He  usually  travelled  at 
night,  partly  to  get  an  extra  day  at  whichever 
mine  he  was  bound  for,  and  partly  because  the 
snow  is  then  in  better  condition,  and  there  are 


Travelling  on  Snow- Shoes.  121 

fewer  chances  of  an  avalanche  above  timber-line. 
Of  course  the  only  way  of  getting  about  at  all 
was  on  snow-shoes,  as  without  them  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  the  traveller  sinking  in  up  to 
his  neck ;  and  floundering  through  loose  snow 
is  a  process  that  would  quickly  exhaust  the 
strongest  man  in  the  world. 

On  one  memorable  occasion,  Jack  started  on 
a  nocturnal  journey  at  1  A.M.,  and,  blessed  with 
a  good  moon,  he  made  capital  time,  reaching 
the  crest  of  the  range  by  daylight.  The  snow 
was  in  excellent  travelling  condition,  the  crust 
being  just  soft  enough  to  let  the  twelve-feet 
Norwegian  shoes  he  was  using  bite  well.  All 
the  lower  branches  of  the  pines  were  covered, 
and  in  the  gulch  below  the  snow  must  have 
been  at  least  twenty  feet  deep.  On  the  crest 
it  was  blowing  hard,  and  the  wind  having  swept 
the  ridges  clear,  he  had  to  carry  his  shoes 
for  half  a  mile  or  so,  to  where  a  long  valley 
through  which  his  road  ran  headed  up  to  the 
highest  peak —  13,200  feet  above  sea-level.  Of 
course  it  was  frightfully  cold  up  there,  and  the 
wayfarer  was  well  pleased  when  he  caught  the 
first  glimpse  of  the  pine-clad  valley  below,  and 
saw  that  he  was  just  in  the  right  place  for  start- 
ing the  run  down-hill  —  the  most  enjoyable  part 


122  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

of  the  journey,  after  the  first  mile  or  two,  which 
was  rather  too  steep  to  be  pleasant. 

One  of  the  advantages  of  the  Norwegian  snow- 
shoe  is,  that  it  cuts  into  hard  snow  just  deep 
enough  to  give  a  grip  without  sinking  so  far  as 
to  stop  the  pace,  and  on  a  steep  down-grade  it 
is  possible  to  go  at  almost  any  speed,  if  the 
balance-pole  be  used  carefully. 

Jack  fastened  his  shoes  on  again,  and  started 
down-hill,  going  slowly  at  first,  and  then  faster 
and  faster  as  the  plateau  dipped  off  towards  the 
head  of  the  valley.  He  had  run  about  half-a- 
mile,  and  was  travelling  almost  at  top  speed, 
when  suddenly  he  found  himself  in  the  air,  and 
got  a  fall  which  nearly  stunned  him.  He  had 
struck  a  sheet  of  ice,  and  of  course  the  shoes 
lost  their  bite  instantly,  depositing  their  startled 
wearer  on  the  broad  of  his  back  without  a  mo- 
ment's warning  !  Naturally,  they  both  came  off, 
and  although  he  clutched  at  them  instinctively, 
he  only  succeeded  in  saving  one  —  the  other  was 
already  beyond  reach,  sliding  rapidly  out  of 
sight  down  the  mountain-side.  As  he  watched 
it  disappearing,  Jack  felt  sick  for  a  moment  — 
which  may  have  been  the  effect  of  the  crack  on 
the  head  he  had  received  in  his  fall,  or  the  punch 
in  the  ribs  from  his  revolver,  but  it  was  probably 


In  Desperate  Case.  123 

the  knowledge  that  if  that  shoe  was  really  gone, 
he  might  reckon  on  his  fingers  the  number  of 
hours  he  had  to  live.  The  snow  around  him 
was  very  deep,  and  though  it  was  harder  some 
hundred  yards  above,  he  did  not  think  he  could 
get  there ;  while  even  if  he  succeeded  in  doing 
so,  there  were  still  four  or  five  miles  of  snow, 
from  ten  to  thirty  feet  thick,  between  himself 
and  his  destination.  To  get  through  that  was 
impossible;  and  even  could  he  flounder  as  far 
as  timber-line,  build  a  fire,  and  camp  there, 
it  so  happened  that  he  was  not  expected  home 
for  four  days,  and  if  any  one  tried  to  follow  him 
later,  his  tracks  would  certainly  be  snowed  up. 

Before  him  were  twenty  miles  of  mountain 
and  valley  to  the  nearest  camp.  And  to  stay 
where  he  was  meant  being  frozen  to  death  in  a 
few  hours.  There  was  plenty  of  choice,  but  of 
nothing  agreeable.  Then  he  began  to  think  of 
the  possibility  of  following  his  shoe,  which  would 
of  course  slide  down  the  steepest  grade  it  could 
find,  and  would  therefore  pass  into  the  lower 
valley  by  means  of  a  rocky  gorge,  which  Jack 
could  see  from  where  he  stood,  and  which  was 
a  thoroughly  break-neck  place,  with  mountains 
of  snow  in  and  around  it,  whence  it  would  be 
impossible  to  climb  up  again,  should  the  quest 


124  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

be  unsuccessful.  However,  any  chance  was 
worth  trying  in  such  a  desperate  case,  and  Jack 
thought  that  as  the  shoe  he  had  would  naturally 
follow  its  mate  if  placed  on  the  same  grade,  his 
best  plan  would  be  to  lie  down  upon  it,  start 
sliding,  and  trust  to  its  being  stopped  by  what- 
ever had  arrested  its  fellow. 

Of  course  the  odds  were  that  the  first  shoe 
had  gone  over  a  precipice  or  splintered  on  a 
point  of  rock,  and  that  the  same  fate  would  over- 
take the  second,  together  with  its  burden ;  but 
if  a  man  must  die,  then  a  quick  death  is  better 
than  the  slow  torture  of  freezing  or  starving,  and 
Jack  decided  to  risk  his  fate  and  start  in  pursuit. 
Accordingly,  he  carefully  found  the  place  where 
the  accident  had  happened,  put  the  remaining 
shoe  on  the  track,  and  then  lay  down  along  it, 
rounding  his  chest  as  much  as  possible  and 
steering  with  his  elbows.  Down  they  went!  — 
sometimes  sliding  along  gaily,  sometimes  plough- 
ing heavily  through  the  soft  drift:  on  and  on, 
it  seemed  to  the  anxious  traveller,  interminably. 
He  watched  keenly  for  any  trace  of  the  lost 
shoe ;  at  the  same  time  keeping  a  bright  look- 
out for  any  ghastly  header  that  might  be  in 
front  of  him.  At  last  he  came  to  a  turn  in  the 
gully,  and   could  scarcely  believe  in  his  good 


Stops  for  a  Rest.  125 

fortune  when  he  caught  sight  of  the  lost  shoe 
sticking  out  of  some  drift  in  front !  Slowly  and 
anxiously  he  extricated  it,  fearing  lest  the  toe 
might  have  struck  a  rock  and  splintered.  But 
no  —  it  was  all  right ;  and  in  a  moment  more  he 
was  safe,  and  sweeping  down  into  timber. 

How  homelike  and  friendly  the  tops  of  the 
pines  looked  too,  after  the  bare  bleak  slopes 
above  on  whose  freezing  heights  he  had  expected 
to  remain  until  he  also  was  cold  and  rigid  as 
they.  Although  he  had  now  lost  a  good  deal 
of  time,  yet  when  he  got  to  the  mouth  of  the 
valley  he  was  so  wet,  cold,  and  hungry  that  he 
decided  to  stop  there  for  a  rest.  So  he  built  a 
good  fire  and  made  himself  as  comfortable  as 
circumstances  would  admit.  It  had  now  begun 
to  storm,  the  clouds  boiling  up  blacker  and 
blacker  every  moment,  and  the  snow  blowing 
past  like  steam.  This  made  snow-shoeing  very 
difficult,  as  newly  fallen  snow  sticks  to  the  sole 
and  drags  terribly.  But  Jack  had  already  made 
up  his  mind  that  all  the  delay  which  had  oc- 
curred would  prevent  his  reaching  his  destina- 
tion that  day  —  the  days  being  very  short  — 
while  the  night  was  evidently  going  to  be  a  wild 
one. 

About  two  miles  farther  on  was  the  site  of  an 


126  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

old-time  mining-camp,  which  had  once  been  a 
busy  place,  but  was  now  deserted,  and  had  but 
a  few  log-cabins  left  standing.  The  stream  had 
shifted  its  course  and  swept  most  of  the  village 
away;  but  one  or  two  huts  still  stood,  filled  half- 
way to  the  roof  with  tailings  that  had  silted  in 
through  the  unchinked  logs.  In  one  of  these 
ruins  Jack  now  decided  either  to  spend  the  night 
altogether,  or  to  halt  until  the  moon  gave  light 
enough  to  show  the  way;  so  he  started  afresh, 
toiling  on  hour  after  hour,  until  it  was  nearly 
dark  when  he  entered  the  clearing  surrounding 
"  Gold  Hollow."  Here  and  there  blackened 
stumps  or  the  gaping  rafters  of  a  cabin  stuck 
up  through  the  snow;  then  came  the  solitary 
chimney  of  an  old  forge,  from  behind  which 
Jack  remembered  getting  a  good  shot  at  a  deer 
in  the  previous  autumn,  and  a  little  farther  on 
were  the  bare  walls  of  two  more  huts.  He 
wondered  if  any  human  being  had  visited  the 
place  since  he  was  hunting  there  three  months 
before,  and  he  also  wondered  whether  —  outside 
the  North  Pole  — there  was  any  one  else  in  the 
world  likely  to  have  so  solitary  and  dreary  a 
camp  as  he  was  in  for  that  night.  It  had  stopped 
snowing,  but  was  darker  than  ever,  as,  wet  and 
weary,  he  dragged  himself  along.     There  were 


Bear  Tracks.  127 

but  a  few  hundred  yards  more  before  he  reached 
the  centre  of  the  village,  where  he  remembered 
seeing  two  cabins  with  roofs  on,  which,  if  they 
could  not  keep  out  wind  and  weather,  could  at 
least  be  used  for  firing.  As  he  walked  he 
noticed  that  a  trail  of  some  kind  crossed  the 
smooth  belt  of  snow  which  defined  the  main 
street;  but  it  was  too  dark  to  see  clearly,  and, 
moreover,  he  felt  too  tired  to  think  or  care 
about  it.  But  a  few  yards  farther  on  it  occurred 
again,  and  stooping  down  he  tried  to  look  at  it, 
but  could  make  out  nothing,  so  bending  lower 
he  carefully /r//  it.  There  could  be  no  mistake 
about  it  then ;  it  was  a  bear's  track,  and  a  big 
one  at  that !  Jack  pushed  on  faster  to  the  old 
cabin,  now  in  sight  —  wondering  what  had 
brought  the  brute  out  a  good  month  before 
they  are  accustomed  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
pangs  of  a  six-months'  appetite.  Once  inside 
the  cabin,  he  thought,  with  a  good  fire  started 
and  a  few  logs  against  the  door,  he  could  keep 
out  any  fool  of  a  bear  who  risked  catching  cold 
by  experimenting  with  the  early-rising  move- 
ment. 

Again  and  again  he  saw  the  tracks  dimly  as 
he  hurried  along,  and  reaching  the  hut,  threw 
off  his  snow-shoes  and  slid  down  the  steep  bank 


128  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

of  snow  the  wind  had  eddied  out,  to  the  door, 
which  still  hung  on  its  raw-hide  hinges.  There 
he  paused,  for  the  ground  was  simply  padded 
over  with  tracks,  and  while  in  the  act  of  stretch- 
ing out  his  hand  towards  the  door,  he  fancied 
he  heard  a  slight  sound  within.  Then  it  flashed 
through  his  mind  that  the  mystery  of  the  tracks 
was  solved.  The  old  bear  had  "  holed  up  "  in 
the  cabin.  Jack  stood  perfectly  still  and  listened 
intently ;  but  the  faint  rustle  he  had  heard  was 
not  repeated.  Everything  was  silent  as  the 
grave.  Noiselessly  he  unsheathed  his  knife, 
and  took  the  blade  between  his  teeth;  noise- 
lessly he  freed  his  revolver  and  ran  his  fingers 
over  the  points  of  the  bullets.  A  full  minute 
had  passed  since  he  heard  the  sound  from  inside, 
and  it  had  not  yet  been  repeated ;  so  he  took 
out  three  or  four  wax  matches,  and  was  ready 
for  the  worst.  He  was  sure  of  being  in  for  a 
desperate  fight,  in  which  the  chances  were  that 
he  would  go  under,  but  if  he  tried  to  retreat,  the 
brute  would  rush  after  him ;  besides,  he  was 
cold,  tired,  and  savage,  and  possessed  by  a  sort 
of  indignation,  that  with  the  whole  mountain  to 
choose  from,  the  bear  should  have  taken  to  the 
particular  cabin  in  which  he  himself  was  quite 
resolved  to  spend  the  night. 


Meets  an  Old  Prospector.  129 

He  was  so  angry,  in  fact,  that  he  would  almost 
as  soon  fight  as  not,  and  he  decided  that  the 
best  plan  would  be  to  strike  a  bunch  of  matches, 
kick  open  the  door,  and  shoot  while  the  glint  of 
light  was  in  the  bear's  eyes,  trusting  to  his  knife 
for  the  rest.  He  struck  his  matches  on  a  piece 
of  rusty  iron  nailed  across  the  door,  kicked  it  in, 
and  was  in  the  very  act  of  pulling  the  trigger, 
when,  as  the  light  flamed  up,  instead  of  the 
green  sparks  of  a  bear's  eyes,  he  saw  the  muzzle 
of  a  rifle  pointing  straight  at  his  head !  In- 
stinctively he  jerked  aside,  as  the  wind,  whis- 
tling round  the  cabin,  blew  out  the  matches,  and 
from  the  darkness  of  the  hut  a  scared  voice  said, 
"  For  God's  sake,  stranger,  don't  shoot !  I 
thought  you  was  a  b'ar !  " 

"  And  I  thought  you  were  another,"  replied 
Jack.  "  A  nice  five  minutes  you've  given  me ! 
Who  are  you,  anyway?  And  what  are  you 
doing  here?  " 

In  another  moment,  when  an  armful  of  dry 
pine-tassels  was  blazing  up  the  chimney,  Jack 
discovered  his  "  bear  "  to  be  an  old  prospector 
whom  he  had  met  occasionally  during  the  last 
two  years,  and  who  over  a  tin  pot  of  hot  coffee 
began  to  explain  his  reasons  for  keeping  house 
in  that  most  unlikely  neighbourhood.  It  seemed 
9 


130  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

that  he  had  struck  a  lead  of  free  gold  up  the 
gulch  in  the  autumn,  and  fearing  lest  any  of  the 
"  boys  "  should  discover  and  stake  it  out  before 
he  had  time  to  do  so  himself,  he  decided  on  tak- 
ing up  his  winter  quarters  in  the  ruined  hut,  in 
order  to  get  to  work  the  moment  the  snow 
would  let  him.  He  finished  by  begging  Jack 
not  to  tell  any  one  of  his  location  and  prospects, 
as  he  "  despised  a  crowd." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  "  if  you'll  tell  me  how 
you  came  to  make  '  bear  '-tracks,  for  I'll  swear 
that  I  wasn't  mistaken  about  seeing  those." 

"  Oh,  that's  easy  done,"  was  the  reply. 
"  Ever  since  I  got  my  feet  frozen  two  years  ago, 
they're  mighty  liable  to  freeze  again,  so  I  just 
cut  up  the  gunney  sack  I  toted  my  traps  here 
in,  wound  it  round  my  toes,  and  padded  about 
that  way.  I  daresay  it  would  look  like  b'ar- 
tracks." 

Well,  the  belated  traveller  passed  a  much 
pleasanter  night  than  he  had  hoped  for  at  some 
stages  of  the  day's  experiences,  and  in  the 
morning,  the  snow  having  ceased,  he  started 
once  more  on  his  journey,  reaching  the  mining 
camp  without  further  adventures.  Once  there, 
he  was  soon  telling  his  misfortunes  to  a  sympa- 
thetic crowd  of  "  boys."     When  he  got  to  the 


Hunted  by  a  Bear.  131 

bear  part  of  the  story  they  laughed,  and  said 
that  their  camp  cook  had  also  suffered  a  beauti- 
ful fright  a  few  months  ago.  It  appeared  that 
he  had  come  home  one  night  with  only  one 
boot  on,  his  hat  gone,  and  his  appearance  gen- 
erally dishevelled.  Moreover,  he  was  carrying 
the  barrel  of  his  rifle  in  his  hand,  the  butt  being 
broken  off  short. 

"  Why,  what's  the  matter?  "  he  was  asked. 

"  H — ll's  the  matter,"  was  the  amiable  reply. 
"  I've  broke  my  rifle,  and  had  the  worst  kind  of 
a  time  with  a  b'ar !  " 

"  Did  you  kill  him  ?  " 

"  Not  much.  It  was  like  this.  I  thought 
this  afternoon  that  I'd  take  a  bit  of  a  hunt  on 
my  own  account;  so  I  wandered  about  a  bit  see- 
ing nothing,  until  I  came  to  those  thick  patches 
of  yellow  pine  down  there.  I  just  had  time  to 
notice  that  a  log  had  been  turned,  and  some 
rubbish  rummaged  about,  when,  just  as  I  was  in 
the  thickest  of  the  timber,  I  see  a  patch  of 
brown  fur  with  the  wind  ruffling  it,  just  between 
two  trees  not  twenty  paces  from  me.  In  course 
I  turned  my  rifle  loose  without  any  proper  aim, 
and  you  should  have  heard  the  roar !  Now, 
you  know  how  pesky  thick  them  woods  are? 
Wal,  /  thought  they  were  too,  up  to  the  moment 


132  Further  Pursuit  of  Gold. 

that  b'ar  roared,  and  then  I'm  blamed  if  there 
seemed  a  tree  to  the  acre  that  was  fit  to  climb. 
So  I  ran,  and  I  guess  I  made  good  time,  but  the 
darned  b'ar  he  ran  too,  and  I  reckon  he  covered 
the  ground  quickest !  At  last,  when  he  was 
nearly  on  me,  I  got  a  chance  at  a  good-sized 
pine.  I  dropped  my  gun  and  up  I  went,  but 
the  b'ar  clawed  at  me  with  his  paw  and  just 
caught  the  heel  of  my  boot  and  ripped  the  sole 
off!  That  made  me  go  faster  than  ever,  and 
I  dumb  so  fast  without  thinking,  that  I  dumb 
right  out  of  the  top  of  the  tree !  " 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   ROCKY   MOUNTAINS   DURING   WINTER. 

A  MOUNTAIN  STORM  —  A  SECOND  NIGHT'S  CAMPING  OUT HAS  A 

MISHAP  IN  COOKING  WITH  A  POWDER  LABELLED  "  BOR- 
WICK's"  —  A  TOILSOME  JOURNEY THE  VERY  LOW  TEM- 
PERATURE     OF     THE      SEASON DISCOVERS     THAT     HE     HAD 

TAKEN  STRYCHNINE  —  FALL  IN  DESCENDING  A  MIXING- 
SHAFT  —  ANOTHER      "  NEAR      THING  "  AN      EXCEPTIONAL 

WINTER  —  PLAN  OF  DOMESTIC  MANAGEMENT  ADOPTED  BY 
JACK  JEBB  AND  A  COMPANION ON  SHORT  RATIONS —  RE- 
DUCED TO  THE  LAST  EXTREMITY  —  AN  EXCEPTION  TO  A 
WHOLE      LIFE'S     BAD     LUCK —  A      SUPPER     OFF      ELK  —  THE 

SNOW     LIFTS HIS    REFLECTIONS   ON     THE    EVENTS    OF     THE 

PAST  MONTHS. 

Of  course,  although  generally  pretty  rough 
Jack's  winter  journeys  between  the  mines  were 
not  always  so  eventful  as  the  one  just  described  ; 
but,  oddly  enough,  his  return  on  this  occasion 
was  destined  to  be  rather  worse  than  his  out- 
ward trip. 

To  begin  with,  he  made  a  bad  start;  being  de- 
tained at  the  mines  until  late  in  the  morning, 
when,  in  order  to  reach  the  crest  of  the  range 
before  night,  he  should  have  been  on  his  way  by 
daylight.     Then  there  had  been  a  partial  thaw 


134     Tlie  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

in  places  which  made  the  snow  sticky  and  diffi- 
cult to  travel  over,  so  that  by  afternoon  he  had 
to  make  up  his  mind  to  "  camp  "  again  for  the 
night.  Unfortunately  he  was  not  going  straight 
home,  or  he  might  have  taken  refuge  with  his 
friend  the  prospecting  "  bear."  But  he  was  now 
bound  for  a  mine  12,800  feet  up  the  range,  and 
quite  out  of  the  track  of  the  ruined  village. 
However,  at  the  edge  of  the  wood,  which 
extended  as  far  as  the  beginning  of  the  precipi- 
tous climb  up  the  mountain,  Jack  knew  of  a 
log-cabin  with  two  walls  left  standing,  which 
was  used  in  summer  as  a  half-way  house  to  the 
mines.  To  this  he  determined  to  make  his 
way,  especially  as  it  was  now  beginning  to  storm 
so  violently  that  in  passing  through  a  belt  of 
dead  wood  with  patches  of  trees  still  unfallen, 
he  could  hear  their  withered  branches  crashing 
down  on  all  sides.  When  he  reached  the  cabin 
his  first  act  was  to  begin  to  clear  out  the  snow 
with  the  help  of  an  old  shovel  he  found  in  a 
corner.  Behind  the  shovel  he  had  noticed  a 
flour-sack,  and  on  examination  it  proved  to  be 
half  full  of  damp  flour  —  a  mouldy  blessing 
which  was  received  by  the  traveller  with  much 
thankfulness,  for  he  had  only  one  sandwich  left 
in  his  pocket,  and  had  been  reflecting  for  some 


Camps  Again  for  the  Night.  135 

time  on  the  extreme  probability  of  his  having 
to  make  it  serve  for  both  supper  and  breakfast. 
When  he  had  scraped  all  the  snow  from  one 
side  of  the  log-wall,  he  cleared  a  space  for  a  fire 
a  little  in  front  of  it,  so  that  by  sitting  between 
the  two  he  would  get  shelter  on  the  one  side 
and  warmth  on  the  other.  As,  with  no  roof  and 
only  two  walls  to  his  bedroom,  he  was  sure  of 
all  the  fresh  air  that  even  a  sanitary  inspector 
could  desire,  he  thought  he  might  as  well  ward 
off  unnecessary  draughts,  and  was  proceeding  to 
fill  up  the  chinks  in  the  logs  at  his  back  with 
pine-boughs,  when,  half  hidden  by  a  broken 
rafter,  he  caught  sight  of —  a  tin  of  Borwick's 
baking-powder  !  He  began  to  think  of  his  nur- 
sery days,  and  the  extraordinary  luck  of  "  The 
Swiss  Family  Robinson,"  who,  when  wrecked 
on  a  desert  island,  always  found  everything  they 
happened  to  want  ready  to  hand.  Jack  reflected 
that  after  all  there  must  be  something  in  that 
wonderful  book,  for  a  similar  fate  was  befalling 
him.  He  had  found  a  house  (ruined),  a  shovel 
(worn  out),  a  sack  of  flour  (damaged),  and  now 
a  tin  of  baking-powder  with  which  to  make  the 
flour  rise.  He  had  the  cup  of  his  flask,  in  which 
at  a  pinch  water  could  be  heated;  and  carefully 
treasured  in  an  inside  pocket  was  a  small  screw 


136     The  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

of  tea.  He  felt  that  he  could  ask  no  more  of 
fate,  except  perhaps  a  blanket ;  but  however 
luxuriously  you  propose  to  live,  you  must  draw 
a  line  somewhere,  and  Jack  drew  it  —  involun- 
tarily—  at  the  blanket. 

Directly  there  was  a  good  fire  going  he  began 
to  cook  his  supper:  first  course,  a  flap-jack 
baked  on  the  shovel ;  second  course,  half  a 
sandwich,  with  tepid  tea — tepid,  because  the 
metal  cup  grew  so  hot  over  the  fire  that  it  was 
impossible  to  drink  its  contents  warm.  He  made 
the  flap-jack  by  first  mixing  snow  with  the  flour, 
and  then  giving  it  a  plentiful  shake  of  "  Bor- 
wick's  "  to  make  it  rise.  But  it  steadfastly  de- 
clined to  rise  at  all.  It  burnt  into  a  brown 
sodden  mass,  and  its  flavour  was  so  bitter  and 
disagreeable  that  after  one  mouthful  only,  the 
disappointed  cook  put  it  aside,  to  be  eaten  next 
day  if  he  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  but 
otherwise  carefully  avoided.  So  he  ate  the 
whole  of  his  sandwich,  drank  his  tea,  and  then 
lit  his  pipe,  determined  to  be  as  comfortable  as 
circumstances  would  allow.  But  —  there  seemed 
to  be  something  very  wrong.  Within  an  hour 
he  was  suffering  intense  pain ;  then  he  became 
violently  ill,  and  throughout  that  long  dreary 
night  he  experienced  all  the  joys  of  a  Cook's 


A    Toilsome  Journey.  137 

excursionist  crossing  the  Channel  for  the  first 
time. 

When  morning  came  he  was  feeling  tho- 
roughly weak  and  ill.  He  had  nothing  to  eat, 
and  couldn't  have  managed  it  if  he  had;  while 
there  were  four  hours  of  hard  climbing  to  be  got 
through  before  he  could  possibly  reach  the  mine. 
To  add  to  his  other  troubles,  the  storm  was  still 
raging  furiously,  and  he  felt  very  doubtful  as  to 
whether  his  little  remaining  strength  would  hold 
out  until  he  got  to  the  top  of  the  range.  His 
only  chance,  however,  was  to  try;  so  he  began 
to  plod  along,  stopping  to  rest  every  few  minutes, 
and  each  time  pushing  on  again  for  a  shorter 
stage.  As  he  won  his  way  upwards,  leaving  the 
shelter  of  the  valley  behind,  it  became  colder 
and  colder;  and  when  after  hours  of  toil  he 
reached  timber-line,  the  wild  icy  gusts,  laden 
with  impalpable  dust-snow,  which  came  roaring 
down  the  steep  gullies,  seemed  almost  to  cut 
him,  passing  through  his  clothes  like  a  million 
needles.  At  timber-line  he  left  his  snow-shoes  ; 
for  above  him  was  a  climb  over  bare  rock  and 
ice,  where  they  would  be  worse  than  useless. 
He  finished  the  last  teaspoonful  of  rum-and- 
ginger  that  his  flask  contained,  and  then  started 
out  into  the  bleak  hurricane.     It  was  only  when 


138      The  Rocky  Mountains  During    Winter. 

clear  of  the  trees  that  its  force  could  be  realised  ; 
for  the  farther  the  traveller  climbed  upwards 
into  the  heart  of  the  black  driving  clouds,  the 
colder  it  grew.  Often  he  had  to  crouch  down 
and  wait  until  some  fierce  blast  passed  by  him. 
When  about  half-way  up,  he  began  literally  to 
freeze.  There  was  a  sudden  queer  sensation  in 
his  mouth,  and  putting  up  his  hand  to  his  cheek 
he  found  that  it  was  frost-bitten.  He  stopped 
and  rubbed  it  right  again  with  snow,  but  a 
moment  later  the  eye  on  the  windward  side  was 
fast.  Then  came  the  feeling  of  intense  drowsi- 
ness, the  longing  to  sleep,  which,  once  given  way 
to,  means  never  more  awaking.  Jack  had  cour- 
age and  energy  enough  left  to  rouse  himself  and 
keep  up  his  circulation  at  all  costs ;  so  again  and 
again  he  gave  himself  heavy  blows  in  the  face  — 
one  upper  cut  under  the  chin  proving  very  effec- 
tive. The  hardest  time  of  all  was  when  he  got 
near  the  top  of  the  range,  and  was  crossing  a 
sheet  of  ice  filling  a  steep  gully  —  probably  five 
feet  wide.  He  was  carving  his  way,  step  by  step, 
with  a  little  axe  he  always  carried  in  his  belt  on 
these  journeys,  when  down  swept  a  gust  which 
seemed  as  though  it  must  tear  him  from  his  foot- 
hold and  dash  him  to  the  bottom  of  the  preci- 
pice !     He  drove  the  axe-head  deep  into  the  ice, 


Frost-Bitten.  139 

and  held  on  like  grim  death,  while  the  wind 
pinned  him  down.  He  began  to  count,  and  got 
as  far  as  150,  thinking  meanwhile  that  unless  the 
blast  decreased  in  strength  he  would  be  gone 
before  he  got  to  200 !  But  it  did  pass,  and  he 
struggled  on.  He  was  quite  dazed  by  this  time  ; 
his  wet  clothes  were  frozen  as  hard  as  boards; 
his  hair  was  a  mass  of  ice,  and  in  spite  of  all  he 
could  do  he  was  frost-bitten  both  in  hands  and 
face.  At  last,  looming  up  through  the  drifting 
snow,  the  end  gable  of  the  mine-house  came  into 
view.  It  was  not  more  than  twenty  yards  dis- 
tant, but  it  seemed  a  mile  to  the  exhausted  man, 
who  crawled  along  until  he  pitched  heavily  into 
the  porch.  Then  he  tried  to  shout,  but  his  voice 
was  gone,  so  he  stumbled  through  the  wood- 
house,  past  the  open  mouth  of  the  shaft,  and 
into  the  inner  room,  where  he  flung  himself  down 
on  one  of  the  bunks  which  lined  its  sides.  Most 
of  the  men  were  down  the  mine,  but  one  was 
leaning  over  the  stove,  preparing  dinner.  He 
stood  and  stared  for  a  moment  at  the  forlorn- 
looking  apparition  on  the  bed,  and  then  began 
to  warm  some  coffee,  remarking  meanwhile  that 
he  should  not  have  thought  any  human  being 
would  have  chosen  this  sort  of  weather  for  a 
stroll !     Though  close  to  the  stove,  he  was  but- 


140     The  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

toned  up  to  the  chin  in  a  pilot  coat,  and  from  the 
low  roof  of  the  hut  hung  icicles  a  foot  deep. 
Just  how  delicious  the  first  cup  of  steaming  coffee 
tasted,  Jack  could  scarcely  have  told,  and  within 
an  hour  he  was  thawed  out,  could  take  some  food, 
and  began  to  feel  himself  again.  He  was  curious 
to  know  if  the  weather  had  been  as  bad.  as  this 
for  many  days  on  the  top  of  the  range,  and  asked 
what  the  thermometer  stood  at. 

"  She  don't  stand,  she  just  sits,"  was  the 
reply;  "and  it's  my  belief  she'd  have  knocked 
the  bottom  out  of  the  bulb  to  get  lower,  if  she 
could.  The  mercury's  just  froze  solid  !  It's 
the  third  time  she's  been  took  that  way  this 
winter,  and  where  mercury  freezes,  a  man  hasn't 
a  square  deal." 

The  men  soon  began  to  come  up  to  dinner 
from  the  mine  below,  and  were  sufficiently  as- 
tonished to  find  the  "  boss  "  there. 

"  Where  did  you  spend  the  night,  sir  ?  "  the 
foreman  asked  ;  and  Jack  began  to  describe  his 
sufferings,  and  to  ask  if  any  one  knew  who  had 
last  camped  in  the  ruined  hut,  and  left  spoilt 
flour  behind  him. 

"  Oh,"  said  one  of  the  men,  "  there  were  two 
chaps  from  Denver  there  in  the  fall.  They 
called  themselves  taxidermists,  but  /  took  'em 
for  tenderfoots." 


Down  a  Mine.  141 

"  Yes,"  chimed  in  another,  "  they  were  pre- 
serving skins  and  suchlike  up  to  the  first  snows, 
and  said  they  should  be  back  in  the  spring  for 
more ;  and  I  believe  they  did  say  something 
about  a  tin  of  strychnine  for  poisoning  wolves 
that  they'd  mislaid.  I  guess  that's  what  you 
thought  was  baking-powder,  sir." 

Of  course  that  was  the  explanation  of  the 
flap-jack  that  wouldn't  rise.  Jack  reflected 
soberly  that  it  was  very  lucky  for  him  it  didn't, 
because  as  one  mouthful  had  half  killed  him, 
the  entire  baking  would  certainly  have  done  so 
quite. 

When  dinner  was  over  he  felt  so  "  fit"  that  he 
thought  he  would  go  and  have  a  look  at  the 
mine,  as  he  was  specially  anxious  to  see  if  any 
ice  had  formed  below  a  shaft  which  was  not  then 
being  used,  but  would  have  to  be  in  order  be- 
fore spring.  He  found  that  there  were  no  lad- 
ders to  this  particular  shaft,  so  he  elected  to  be 
lowered  by  the  windlass.  There  was  no  cage, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  hold  on  tightly  to  the 
rope,  keeping  one  foot  in  a  loop  at  the  end  t>f 
it.  He  settled  himself  firmly  and  swung  off,  the 
rope  in  his  right  hand,  and  a  candle  in  his  left, 
which  served  to  show  the  copper-stained  walls 
of  the  shaft  as  he  slowly  descended.     This  shaft 


142      The  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

was  about  three  hundred  feet  deep,  and  he  was 
half-way  down  when  he  leant  forward  to  examine 
a  stain  of  decomposed  copper,  and,  as  he  did  so, 
in  an  instant  his  foot  shot  out  from  the  noose. 
It  was  coated  with  ice,  and  he  had  forgotten 
that  a  solid  crust  had  formed  under  his  boot. 
His  candle  was  jerked  out  of  his  left  hand,  while 
his  right  hand  slipped  down  the  icy  rope  like 
lightning  and  closed  on  it  with  a  death-grip  ! 
It  all  seemed  to  pass  in  the  fraction  of  a  second, 
until  he  felt  himself  swinging  by  one  hand  to  the 
end  of  the  rope  and  instinctively  reaching  up  to 
the  loop  with  the  other,  only  to  find  it  a  smooth 
coat  of  ice  which  gave  scarcely  any  hold  at  all. 
He  knew  that  he  could  never  hold  on  long 
enough  to  be  hauled  back  to  the  mouth  of  the 
shaft,  even  if  he  succeeded  in  making  the  men 
hear  him.  The  shaft  was  pitch-dark,  and  it  was 
therefore  impossible  to  judge  if  he  were  being 
lowered  slowly  or  fast  as  he  hung  —  literally 
between  life  and  death  —  with  every  faculty 
strained  to  the  one  act  of  clinging  to  that  rope  ! 
His  hands  were  rapidly  becoming  numbed  with 
cold,  and  little  by  little  he  felt  them  slipping, 
—  another  moment,  and  down  he  went! 

But  not  far ;   for  when  he  let  go,  he  was  not 
three  feet  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.     All 


Domestic  Management.  143 

the  same  he  felt  decidedly  shaky,  as  he  groped 
about  for  his  lost  candle.  It  had  been  a  very 
"  near  thing,"  and  he  had  been  through  too 
many  close  shaves  lately  for  his  nerves  to  be 
strong  enough  to  enable  him  to  think  without 
a  shudder  of  his  sensations  when  first  he  felt 
himself  falling.  It  was  entirely  characteristic, 
however,  that  after  finding  his  candle  he  went 
about  the  business  he  had  in  hand  before  signal- 
ling to  be  drawn  up  again. 

Altogether,  he  had  passed  a  rather  lively 
week ;  and  when,  after  a  few  days  spent  at  this 
mine,  he  arrived  at  his  headquarters  without 
further  adventure,  he  felt  a  chastened  joy  in  the 
reflection  that  by  the  time  he  had  to  make  the 
journey  again,  there  would  probably  be  a  change 
for  the  better  in  the  weather.  But  it  was  an 
exceptionally  severe  winter,  and  for  some  weeks 
even  the  mines  were  snowed  up ;  so  the  men 
went  off  to  the  nearest  settlement  to  wait,  leaving 
Jack  with  an  English  mining  superintendent 
whom  he  had  lately  engaged  to  keep  house 
alone. 

Domestic  management  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  a  strong  point  with  either  of  them,  although 
they  succeeded  in  simplifying  it  greatly.  Neither 
objected  to  doing  the  cooking,  but  what  really  did 


144     The  Rocky  Mountains  During    Winter. 

appal  them  was  the  washing-up  afterwards.  The 
dishes  would  slip  out  of  their  hands,  giving  rise 
to  forcible  and  pointed  remarks  ;  then  the  greasy 
water  was  unpleasant;  so  that  altogether  they 
looked  forward  to  meal-times  with  dread,  until 
they  hit  upon  the  happy  expedient  of  using  first 
the  right  and  then  the  wrong  side  of  each  plate, 
afterwards  piling  them  in  a  corner  till  every 
scrap  of  crockery  in  the  house  was  dirty,  when 
they  would  have  a  field-day,  and  wash  the  lot. 
Then  the  process  would  begin  again !  Their 
house-cleaning  was  performed  on  much  the  same 
principles.  In  a  bedroom  at  the  back  of  the 
house  stood  a  large  deal  table.  It  seemed  a 
pity  not  to  make  use  of  it,  so  they  began  by 
covering  it  with  their  boots,  clothes,  portman- 
teaux, &c,  and  they  found  it  such  a  convenient 
receptacle  for  anything  they  wished  to  get  rid 
of  that  they  gradually  added  ties,  hats,  papers, 
pistols,  brushes,  and  in  fact  all  their  worldly 
goods,  until  the  pile  reached  such  a  height  that 
it  was  necessary  to  fetch  a  chair  when  anything 
was  required  from  the  top  layer.  This  would 
be  endured  for  a  week  or  two,  and  then  voted 
a  bore,  when  they  would  tidy  up  by  the  simple 
and  obvious  method  of  upsetting  table  and 
contents  on  to  the  floor  and  sorting  out  their 


On  Short  Rations.  145 

respective  possessions,  which  they  carefully  kept 
apart  for  a  few  days.  Then,  as  a  rule,  the  sight 
of  the  empty  table  proved  too  great  a  tempta- 
tion to  be  resisted,  and  another  monument  of 
order —  or  disorder —  began  to  arise. 

A  little  later  on,  owing  to  the  great  length 
and  severity  of  this  particular  winter,  the  two 
men  found  that  they  were  very  likely  to  run 
short  of  provisions ;  and  as  snow  was  heaped 
up  twenty  feet  deep  all  round  them,  and  still 
fell  heavily,  there  was  no  hope  of  getting  a  fresh 
supply.  They  allowanced  themselves  carefully, 
taking  first  two  and  then  only  one  meal  a-day; 
but  with  all  their  pains  they  saw  their  stock  of 
food  gradually  getting  lower  and  lower  day  by 
day,  while  the  storm  outside  raged  unceasingly. 
Finally  there  was  nothing  left  but  a  box  of  sar- 
dines and  two  biscuits.  They  divided  these 
equally  and  made  them  serve  for  a  meal  —  so 
frugal  a  meal  that  they  were  glad  to  go  to  bed 
early  in  order  to  forget  in  sleep  the  pangs  of 
hunger,  which  were  already  beginning  to  make 
themselves  felt.  The  next  morning  they  scraped 
out  the  crumbs  from  the  biscuit-tins  and  fried 
them  in  what  remained  of  the  sardine  oil,  so  as 
to  make  them  go  a  little  further;  but  at  best 
there  were  only  a  few  mouthfuls,  and  Jack  and 
10 


146     The  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

his  companion  tightened  their  belts  with  a  feel- 
ing that  it  was  all  over  with  them.  With  the 
nearest  camp  fifteen  miles  away,  over  snow- 
covered  mountains,  on  which  no  trace  of  a  trail 
could  possibly  be  found,  the  chances  of  rescue 
seemed  very  slight.  That  day  they  spoke  little. 
At  times  they  felt  faint  and  sick,  otherwise  not 
much  the  worse  for  their  fast;  but  next  morn- 
ing they  awoke  racked  by  violent  pains  and  a 
ravening  hunger.  They  searched  the  house 
despairingly  for  any  small  fragments  of  food 
which  they  might  have  overlooked.  Not  a 
vestige  of  anything  eatable  was  to  be  found. 
Then  they  went  to  the  door  of  the  hut  and 
looked  out.  The  wind  was  still  blowing  a  hurri- 
cane, but  the  snow  seemed  to  be  lessening  in 
thickness,  and  Jack  resolved  that  if  it  stopped 
that  day  he  would  take  his  rifle  and  try  to  get 
something  to  eat  before  he  became  too  weak  to 
do  so,  even  if  the  storm  abated.  Better  to  be 
lost  in  a  snowstorm  and  freeze  to  death,  he 
thought,  while  trying  to  save  yourself  and  friend, 
than  to  sit  supinely  at  home  waiting  for  a  horrible 
fate.  So  they  both  set  to  work  with  spades  to 
clear  an  exit  from  the  house,  growing  exhausted 
and  stopping  to  rest  every  few  minutes,  —  still, 
making  way  slowly. 


The  Snow  Lessening.  147 

By  the  afternoon  there  was  a  decided  lull  in 
the  storm,  the  wind  had  dropped  a  good  deal, 
and  the  snow  ceased  entirely;  so  Jack  fortified 
himself  with  a  hot  glass  of  spirits  and  stepped 
out  into  the  white  desert,  realising  fully  that 
should  it  begin  to  snow  again  before  he  could 
return,  his  tracks  would  be  covered  up,  and  he 
might  wander  round  and  round  the  house  until 
he  dropped,  without  ever  seeing  one  sign  by 
which  to  find  his  way. 

However,  there  must  be  exceptions  to  every 
rule,  and  for  once  the  bad  luck  which  pursued 
him  all  his  life  gave  way  to  a  better  fortune ; 
for  the  snow  held  up,  and  he  had  not  wandered 
more  than  a  mile  from  home  when  he  sighted  a 
fine  elk,  and  brought  it  down  with  the  first  bar- 
rel. It  fell  in  an  inaccessible  place,  and  he  had 
to  go  back  for  his  companion  ;  but  between 
them  they  soon  extricated  their  prize  and 
dragged  it  home  in  triumph.  How  good  their 
supper  was !  and  how  their  spirits  rose  when 
freed  from  the  awful  dread  of  the  last  few  days. 

The  storm  came  on  worse  than  ever  that 
night,  but  next  clay  abated  again,  and  then  grad- 
ually died  away,  not  to  return  that  winter;  so 
that,  before  the  last  bones  of  the  elk  were 
picked   clean,  there  was  once  more  a  trail  be- 


148     The  Rocky  Mountains  During   Winter. 

tween  the  camps,  and  the  worst  was  over.  Jack 
was  not  given  to  shirking  danger;  but  all  the 
same,  when  spring  arrived  and  the  snow  began 
to  melt,  he  felt  that,  all  things  considered,  he 
had  had  more  narrow  escapes  in  the  last  few 
months  than  he  should  care  to  crowd  again  into 
a  single  winter. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AFFAIRS   AT   DENVER. 

SPRING    IN   A  WESTERN   MINING-CAMP HEAVY  OUTLAT  ON   THE 

"GREAT  WHALE  "MINES A  CONSULTATION  ON  THE  SUBJECT 

NECESSARY — STARTS    FOR  NEW  YORK  —  STAY  AT  BOSTON  

AMERICAN  HOSPITALITY  —  THE  VARIETY  OF  RELIGIONS  IN 
BOSTON  —  LARGE  SPIRITUALISTIC  ELEMENT  IN  ITS  SCHOOLS 
OF   THOUGHT  —  ANECDOTE  OF  A  SEANCE  —  HIS    INTEREST    IN 

THE  PSYCHICAL    RESEARCH    SOCIETY SAILS    FOR    ENGLAND 

FAMILY    CALLS MARRIAGE    AND    RETURN    TO  DENVER 

METHODS    OF    OBTAINING    CAMP-SUPPLIES  —  A     MYSTERIOUS 

PEDLAR TRAPPING    BEAR AN    AMUSING    CLIMAX THE 

GREAT  ECLIPSE  IN  THE  ROCKIES  —  A  MAGNIFICENT  SPEC- 
TACLE —  EFFECT    OF     THE     PHENOMENON     ON    A    PARTY     OF 

UTES  —  JACKJEBB    AND  HIS  NEIGHBOURS A  REMARKABLE 

FEAT. 

With  the  advent  of  milder  weather  the  trails 
became  passable  once  more,  the  men  returned 
to  work,  and  the  dreary  inactivity  of  the  past 
few  weeks  gave  place  to  all  the  bustle  of  a 
busy  mining-camp.  Also,  of  course,  Jack's  tour 
of  inspection  became  infinitely  easier — but! 
There  seemed  destined  to  be  more  "  buts  "  in 
his  career  than  in  those  of  most  people,  although 
there  are  very  few  unacquainted  with  the  ca- 
pacity for  disagreeableness    possessed    by  that 


150  Affairs  at  Denver. 

useful  word.  The  trouble  now  was  with  the 
"  Great  Whale "  mines ;  for  with  an  appetite 
entirely  unappeased  by  the  large  amount  of 
money  and  labour  they  had  already  absorbed, 
they  were  eagerly  clamouring  for  more. 

The  fact  was,  that  though  an  excellent  group 
of  mines  in  themselves,  they  required  more 
development  than  the  purchasers  had  expected, 
before  beginning  to  pay  the  large  dividends, 
which  seemed  as  far  off  as  ever.  There  was 
no  doubt  about  the  whole  thing  being  a  sound 
going  concern,  but  it  is  the  experience  of  all 
who  have  had  to  do  with  silver-mines  that  be- 
fore getting  any  money  out,  a  vast  amount  has  to 
be  put  in.  Altogether,  a  consultation  with  the 
other  members  of  the  little  syndicate  appeared 
to  be  necessary,  and  Jack  thought  it  best  to  see 
them  before  affairs  got  worse.  So  after  making 
arrangements  for  a  couple  of  months'  absence, 
he  started  for  New  York,  en  route  for  London. 
A  few  days  after  reaching  the  former  place  his 
business  took  him  on  to  Boston.  He  had  been 
there  before,  but  never  after  so  long  an  interval 
of  "  roughing  it,"  and  at  first  he  found  its 
luxurious  clubs  and  its  hospitable  people  a  little 
alarming.  For  some  days  he  lived  in  a  chronic 
state  of  terror  lest  he  should  dip  his  knife  into 


American  Hospitality.  151 

the  salt-cellar  at  a  dinner-party,  or  commit  some 
other  solecism  which  would  shake  the  cultured 
city  to  its  foundations.  Mercifully,  however, 
he  was  preserved  from  dragging  the  "  Wild 
West"  into  the  domesticated  East,  and  as  he 
already  had  some  friends  in  Boston  and  quickly 
made  more,  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  his  taste  of 
civilisation. 

As  compared  with  Americans,  notably  New 
Yorkers  or  Bostonians,  hospitality  in  England  is 
little  understood.  There,  you  may  arrive  unex- 
pectedly in  the  middle  of  the  night,  and  instead 
of  remarking,  as  an  English  hostess  certainly 
would,  that  there  are  more  convenient  trains, 
your  Americans  will  say,  and  think,  how  truly 
sweet  of  you  to  give  them  such  a  delightful  sur- 
prise !  Or  you  may  write  to  tell  your  friends 
that  you  are  going  to  pay  them  a  visit,  accom- 
panied by  your  wife  and  mother-in-law,  with 
their  pet  dog  and  favourite  monkey,  and  you 
will  be  met  and  welcomed  just  as  heartily  as  if 
you  were  an  eligible  bachelor  fulfilling  a  long- 
promised  engagement.  It  adds  a  great  charm 
to  a  return  from  many  wanderings  to  know 
that  not  only  will  everybody  be  overjoyed  to 
see  you,  but  that  they  will  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  so. 


152  Affairs  at  Denver. 

Another  thing  which  greatly  endears  Boston 
to  the  stranger  within  its  gates  is  the  number 
and  variety  of  its  religions.  You  may  be  a  fol- 
lower of  Tom  Paine,  or  a  High  Church  curate ; 
you  may  believe  that  only  a  Plymouth  Brother 
has  any  real  chance  of  salvation,  or  that  all  but 
the  votaries  of  the  Roman  Church  are  doomed 
to  destruction.  You  may  practise  any  or  all  of 
these  creeds,  and  you  will  be  sure  to  find  others 
who  think  with  you,  while  those  who  don't  will 
be  convinced  that  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be 
said  for  your  side  of  the  question,  and  will 
regard  you  with  a  large  tolerance,  considering 
your  soul  as  much  your  own  private  property 
as  your  bank-book.  There  may  be  Boston 
missionaries  —  probably  there  are  —  but  if  so, 
they  confine  their  propaganda  to  the  heathen, 
who  may  like  their  ministrations,  and  in  any 
case  have  to  put  up  with  them,  on  the  principle 
of  "No  work,  no  pudding  "  ;  but  they  allow  their 
cultivated  fellow-citizens  to  indulge  peaceably 
the  faith  that  is  in  them. 

Among  the  various  schools  of  thought  in  the 
"London  of  America"  there  is  a  large  spiritu- 
alistic element;  and  into  this  circle,  both  by 
circumstances  and  bent  of  mind,  Jack  was 
drawn.     Whatever    is    newest   in   the  world   of 


Attends  Seances.  153 

spiritualism  takes  its  rise  there,  so  that  when- 
ever our  traveller  found  himself  in  Boston  he 
always  went  to  one  or  two  lectures  or  seances. 
Of  course  some  of  the  latter  were  very  palpa- 
ble humbug,  while  sometimes,  when  they  took 
place  in  private  houses  and  with  non-profes- 
sional mediums  quite  above  suspicion,  it  was 
difficult  to  account  naturally  for  the  things 
which  occurred. 

For  instance,  he  once  took  what  purported  to 
be  a  spirit  hand  in  his,  and  closing  his  fingers 
tightly  over  it,  determined  to  see  what  would 
happen  if  he  refused  to  release  it.  That  was 
soon  seen,  for  the  hand  gave  a  slight  flutter  and 
was  gone,  without  his  having  in  the  least  re- 
laxed his  grasp  !  Incidents  of  this  sort  might 
be  multiplied  indefinitely;  but  while  few  people 
nowadays  doubt  that  there  is  "  something "  in 
spiritualism,  probably  the  majority  would  agree 
with  Jack  Jebb  that  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to 
spend  much  of  the  short  life  accorded  to  us  in 
penetrating  into  those  supernatural  mists  which 
must  one  day  be  made  clear  to  all.  He  was 
sufficiently  interested,  nevertheless,  to  join  the 
Psychical  Research  Society,  later  on,  in  Lon- 
don, while  it  was  under  the  presidency  of 
Madame  Blavatsky.     After  some  years,  during 


154  Affairs  at  Denver. 

which  he  was  too  seldom  in  England  to  see 
very  much  of  its  proceedings,  he  took  his  name 
off  its  register  for  the  entirely  characteristic 
reason  that  a  man  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  fool 
had  joined  ! 

But  to  return  to  our  story.  Between  business 
and  pleasure  two  or  three  weeks  slipped  rapidly 
by,  and  Jack  was  soon  on  board  an  Atlantic 
liner  once  more.  When  he  reached  London, 
he  found  that  it  would  take  longer  than  he  had 
expected  to  conclude  his  financial  arrangements ; 
so  while  they  were  pending  he  had  an  opportu- 
nity, which  had  not  occurred  for  years,  to  see 
something  of  his  family.  The  aunt  in  Yorkshire 
(Mrs  Miles),  with  whom  he  had  always  been  a 
great  favourite,  was  delighted  to  hear  of  his  re- 
turn, and  insisted  on  his  paying  her  a  visit  at 
once.  She  was  a  strong-minded,  autocratic  old 
lady,  with  a. penchant  for  arranging  the  affairs  of 
the  entire  family,  most  of  whom  stood  rather  in 
awe  of  her.  Now  Jack  was  a  man  of  equally 
decided  character,  who  preferred  making  his 
own  plans,  and  was  not  at  all  disposed  to  have 
them  overruled  even  by  an  elderly  aunt  with  a 
large  fortune.  Therefore,  though  really  very 
fond  of  each  other,  they  usually  quarrelled 
whenever  they  met,  and  the  amount  of  money 


Left  a  Few  Thousands.  155 

for  which  Jack  was  down  in  Mrs  Miles'  will 
fluctuated  accordingly. 

On  this  occasion  it  was  the  family  tree  which 
brought  them  to  grief.  Mrs  Miles  had  been  re- 
galing her  nephew  upon  it  for  an  entire  after- 
noon, until  at  last  his  patience  gave  out,  and  in 
a  tone  of  bland  inquiry  he  asked,  "  Do  you  really 
believe  all  that?  "  She  never  quite  forgave  him 
for  this  remark,  although  at  her  death  some  years 
later  she  left  him  a  few  thousands,  which  were  all 
the  more  acceptable  for  being  scarcely  expected. 

Meanwhile  Jack  soon  had  to  hurry  back  to 
town  in  order  to  finish  the  business  about  the 
mines.  While  there  he  spent  a  good  deal  of  time 
with  his  other  aunt,  his  mother's  sister,  also  a 
strong-minded  wealthy  old  lady  from  whom  he 
had  expectations.  At  her  house  he  met  a  young 
Canadian  lady,  whom  he  fell  in  love  with  and 
eventually  married.  She  was  then  about  to  re- 
turn to  Canada ;  and  when  he  had  concluded  his 
financial  arrangements  he  followed  her  there, 
and  her  parents  raising  no  objection,  they  were 
married  at  once,  starting  for  the  mining  camp  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains  shortly  after.  It  was  not 
a  happy  marriage ;  but  as  Mrs  Jebb  only  sur- 
vived it  a  few  years,  it  is  not  necessary  to  go 
into  details.     She  left  one  child. 


156  Affairs  at  Denver. 

When  the  newly-married  pair  got  as  far  as 
Denver,  on  their  way  to  the  mines,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  an  Irish  domestic,  who  for  a 
large  consideration  consented  to  accompany 
them,  and  once  there,  devoted  the  whole  of  her 
time  to  making  herself,  not  useful,  but  orna- 
mental, for  the  behoof  of  the  miners.  There 
were  now  three  or  four  families  settled  within  a 
radius  of  about  fifteen  miles,  and  in  the  summer 
they  managed  to  meet  frequently;  but  of  course 
the  winters  were  as  usual  cold,  stormy,  and 
lonely.  If  November  were  sufficiently  open  for 
a  large  enough  supply  of  elk  and  deer  meat, 
willow-grouse,  sage-hen,  and  blue  hares  to  be 
obtained  occasionally,  with  perhaps  an  odd  bear, 
it  was  pretty  certain  that  no  one  but  Jack  would 
enter  or  leave  the  camp  for  the  next  six  months. 
The  other  supplies  were  procured  from  the 
nearest  settlement,  but  once  in  a  way  itinerant 
vendors  would  make  a  tour  of  the  various  camps, 
which  were  only  too  glad  to  get  their  provisions 
brought  to  them  instead  of  their  having  to  waste 
a  week  in  taking  a  waggon  to  fetch  the  necessary 
stores. 

Jack  bought  a  load  of  potatoes  one  summer 
from  a  ragged  and  dirty-looking  creature  whose 
face  could  not  be  distinctly  seen,  as  what  re- 


A  Mysterious  Pedlar.  157 

mained  of  his  hat  was  pulled  down  over  his  eyes, 
and  he  wore  a  muffler  which  hid  the  lower  part 
of  his  face.  But  something  in  his  voice  struck 
Jack,  who  tried  in  vain  to  enter  into  conversation. 
The  man,  however,  seemed  surly,  and  would  not 
respond.  So  Jack  concluded  the  bargain  and 
went  back  into  the  house,  thinking  to  himself, 
"  I'll  swear  that's  an  Englishman  down  on  his 
luck !  "  Indeed  he  was  so  haunted  by  the 
thought  that  he  went  out  again  to  make  another 
effort  to  overcome  the  man's  reserve.  However, 
the  potato-vendor  had  quickly  disappeared,  so 
the  matter  remained  unsettled.  Years  after- 
wards, when  the  mysterious  pedlar  had  come 
into  the  title  to  which  he  was  then  only  heir- 
presumptive,  he  was  constrained  to  confess  that 
he  had  once  gained  a  precarious  livelihood  by 
hawking  potatoes  when  more  than  usually  hard 
up.  He  explained  that  his  objection  to  being 
recognised  was  not  on  account  of  his  occupation, 
but  because  of  the  dirt  inseparable  from  it. 
Therefore,  when  Jebb  went  a  second  time  to 
look  for  him,  he  hid  behind  the  waggon,  and 
eventually  got  away  without  being  found  out. 
That  year,  when  the  last  of  the  steers  for  the 
winter  supply  had  been  driven  in  and  butchered, 
Jack  noticed  bear-tracks  every  morning  in  the 


158  Affairs  at  Denver. 

vicinity  of  the  slaughter-house.  He  tried  sit- 
ting up  for  several  nights,  but  never  got  a  chance 
of  a  shot,  so  he  decided  that  "  trapping  "  was 
the  best  plan ;  and  accordingly  a  trap  was  set 
just  where  the  fence  of  the  stock-corral  came 
down  to  a  little  creek,  overgrown  with  willows. 
The  trap  was  carefully  powdered  with  snow,  and 
from  a  tree  above  it  were  hung  some  tempting 
scraps  of  offal,  within  easy  reach  of  an  enterpris- 
ing bear.  The  next  morning  Jack,  with  one  of 
the  men,  started  to  investigate  a  little  before  day- 
light, and  as  the  trap  was  close  to  the  slaughter- 
house —  not  half-a-mile  from  the  camp  —  they 
promised  to  send  for  the  others  to  see  the  fun 
should  the  brute  be  caught.  When  the  two 
reached  the  place,  they  found  the  ground  covered 
with  tracks ;  but  not  only  was  the  bear  invisible, 
the  trap  also  had  disappeared.  They  peered 
silently  in  every  direction,  carefully  scrutinising 
each  rock  sticking  up  through  the  snow,  and 
closely  examining  the  back  of  the  slaughter- 
house, without  finding  a  sign  of  their  prey,  when, 
just  as  they  were  beginning  to  think  that  the 
wily  animal  had  outwitted  them,  they  caught 
sight  of  a  patch  of  black-and-silver  fur  hidden 
in  a  thick  clump  of  willows  covered  with  snow. 
They  could   not    make   out  his  head  for  some 


On  Solitary   Watch.  159 

time,  but  at  last  got  a  glimpse  of  it,  sunk  on  his 

fore-paws  and  half-buried  in  snow.    He  was  kept 

prisoner  by  the  chain  and  toggle  on  his  leg  having 

caught  round  a  willow-root. 

When  they  had  discovered  this  fact,  Jack  and 

his  companion  softly  retraced  their  steps  a  few 

yards,  quickly  deciding  that  the  latter  should  go 

to  fetch  the  other  "  boys,"  leaving  his  rifle  with 

the  "  boss,"  who,  armed  with  this   and  his   own 

revolver,    could    easily  "  'tend    bear "   until  the 

arrival  of  the  camp  to  see  the  sport.     It  was  a 

bitterly   cold  morning,  freezing   hard,  and  Jack 

found  that  he  had  a  very  chilly  bit  of  sentry-go 

before  him.     The  rifle  felt  cold  enough  to  burn 

his  hand,  so  he  cleared  a  stump  from  snow  and 

laid   it  across,  taking  care  to  point  it  towards 

the  willows.     It  seemed  like  an  hour  before  the 

sun  rose,  and  even  then  it  gave  no  heat;  so  that 

the  solitary  watcher  was  glad  enough  when  first 

a  few,  and  then  more  figures,  came  in  sight,  until 

there  were  about  twenty  lookers-on.     They  all 

took  a  glance  at  the  prostrate  bear,  which  had 

not  moved  an  inch  all  this  time,  afterwards  be- 

t 

stowing  themselves  in  various  coigns  of  vantage 
—  the  fence  round  the  slaughter-yard  for  pre- 
ference. 

Now,  the    man   who   had    gone  to  fetch   the 


160  Affairs  at  Denver. 

others  was  to  have  for  reward  the  first  shot; 
but  as  Jack  did  not  want  to  see  the  poor  beast 
baited,  he  determined  to  give  it  a  eoup-de-grdce 
with  his  revolver  —  a  navy-pattern  Colt  —  as 
soon  as  it  was  wounded  by  the  rifle.  There- 
fore, as  the  man  moved  cautiously  towards  the 
willows,  Jack  followed  closely.  The  former 
stepped  to  the  edge  of  the  creek,  a  few  paces 
to  the  right,  to  get  a  clearer  shot;  but  as  he 
raised  his  rifle  the  crust  of  snow  on  which  he 
stood  gave  way,  and  down  he  went  into  the  dry 
bed  of  the  creek  !  There  was  a  roar  of  laughter 
from  the  spectators,  echoed  instantly  by  another 
and  a  different  roar,  as  with  one  wild  pull  at  his 
chain  the  bear  charged  straight  at  Jack !  Most 
of  the  men  were  armed,  but  as  he  was  between 
them  and  the  furious  animal,  they  could  not 
fire,  while  the  only  member  of  the  party  near 
enough  to  be  of  any  use  was  swearing  volubly, 
on  the  broad  of  his  back,  in  the  creek.  For  an 
instant  the  great  brute's  charge  was  checked  as 
the  chain  tightened  up  to  the  toggle,  but  his 
impetus  was  too  heavy  to  be  long  withstood. 
Something  gave  way,  and  in  a  second  more  he 
was  rearing  up,  and  almost  on  his  victim.  Then 
Jack  fired,  taking  him  in  the  centre  of  the  chest, 
a  little  low;    and  with  a  sort  of  sigh  the  bear 


An  Amusing  Climax.  161 

sank    down,    all   but   touching    his    adversary's 
feet ! 

The  whole  affair  was  over  in  five  seconds,  but 
considering  the  amount  of  lead  a  bear  will  some- 
times carry  away,  it  was  a  strange  fluke  killing 
one  with  a  single  pistol-shot ;  and  Jack  always 
maintained  that  if  he  had  not  been  so  taken  by 
surprise,  he  should  have  bolted  too.  For  the 
charge  was  so  sudden  that  the  "dress-circle" 
perched  on  the  high  fence  had  one  and  all 
started  backwards,  thereby  causing  the  top  rail 
to  give  way,  so  that  they  all  took  a  header  into 
the  snow  behind  them,  from  which  now  pro- 
truded a  large  variety  of  wildly  gesticulating 
legs !  A  little  to  one  side,  three  men  were 
frantically  trying  to  swarm  up  a  small  pine- 
tree,  not  big  enough  for  one;  while  from  the 
blind  ditch  into  which  the  foremost  sportsman 
had  fallen  still  issued  sulphureous  sounds.  They 
picked  themselves  up  by  degrees,  and  went 
slowly  homeward,  wiser  and  sadder  men.  It 
was  not  considered  polite  to  allude  to  that 
bear-hunt  for  a  long  time;  and  when  other 
camps  got  hold  of  the  story  and  began  to 
"chaff"  the  men,  they  were  at  once  gently 
but  firmly  silenced  by  the  simultaneous  pro- 
duction of  every  shooting-iron  in  camp. 


1 62  Affairs  at  Denver. 

There  were  occasional  incidents  of  this  kind  to 
vary  the  monotony  of  life  in  the  heart  of  the 
cold  and  silent  mountains,  but  nothing  occurred 
worth  recording  until  the  year  of  the  great 
eclipse  of  the  sun —  1875  —  which  Jack  saw 
under  conditions  such  as  were  probably  vouch- 
safed to  few  human  beings.  He  climbed  to  the 
topmost  crag  of  one  of  the  highest  peaks  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  order  to  enjoy  the  mag- 
nificent sight  to  the  full,  and  he  was  not 
disappointed. 

To  the  east  the  great  table-land  of  the  plains 
stretched  out  below  him  like  a  vast  greenish- 
brown  ocean,  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  To 
the  south  Pike's  Peak  towered  up  in  solitary 
grandeur ;  while  to  the  north  and  west  arose  a 
tumultuous  sea  of  snowy  peaks,  piled  range 
behind  range.  At  first  there  was  not  a  fleck  of 
cloud  in  sight;  then  far  away  the  distant  western 
horizon  was  seen  to  darken;  the  white  ridges 
changed  into  violet,  then  to  blue,  and  soon 
faded  away,  leaving  only  a  faint  ghostly  outline. 
The  valley  grew  darker,  and  even  as  the  solitary 
spectator  gazed,  seemed  to  form  long  tongues 
of  grey-blue  shadow,  leaping  towards  him  from 
its  depths.  The  clear  air  became  dusky,  and 
glancing  upward,  he  could  see  the  sun  already 


The  Shadow  Draws  off.  163 

partly  obscured.  Then  a  great  dim  shadow 
swept  up  with  a  hideous  velocity  from  the  west, 
as  if  a  crape  curtain,  becoming  thicker  and 
thicker  each  instant,  were  being  thrown  over  the 
vast  background  of  mountains  and  precipices. 

A  complete  silence  settled  on  the  earth,  the 
air  grew  colder  and  colder  each  moment,  and 
an  indescribable  sense  of  desolation  and  death 
pervaded  the  atmosphere.  The  stars  sprang 
out  in  all  their  still  beauty,  and  as  the  icy  blast 
swirled  along  the  crags,  of  a  sudden  it  was 
night.  The  scene  on  the  mountain-top,  in  the 
moments  of  totality,  was  terribly  grand,  for  a 
dark  veil  of  night  brooded  over  the  world  for 
sixty  miles  around.  Beyond  this  belt  of  gloom. 
in  the  north  and  south,  was  a  clear  yellow  band  ; 
the  faint  blue  range,  distinctly  visible,  as  it 
dipped  down  to  the  far-off  plains,  fading  away 
by  exquisite  gradations  of  colour  into  the  hazy 
north.  Above,  in  the  dark  sky,  a  black  ball 
was  hanging,  surrounded  by  a  faint  pale  disc, 
streaming  out  and  vanishing  into  space:  then  a 
speck  of  intense  golden  light.  Larger  anc|  larger 
it  grows ;  farther  and  farther  docs  the  black 
shadow  draw  off  from  the  glorious  sun,  until 
the  last  vestige  of  the  stupendous  phenomenon 
has  passed,  and  the  beholder  stands  shading  his 


164  Affairs  at  Denver. 

eyes  from  the  glare,  while  a  frightened  band  of 
antelope  a  mile  off,  which  had  been  rushing 
about  wildly,  sobered  down  again  now  that  the 
unknown  terror  had  swept  away. 

It  was  a  sight  worth  living  long  to  see,  and, 
strange  to  say,  it  proved  of  some  practical  utility, 
for  the  marvel  so  utterly  demoralised  a  party  of 
Utes  meditating  a  raid  on  the  mining  camps, 
that  they  gave  up  the  idea  and  went  off  stealing 
Rapahoe  ponies  instead. 

It  has  been  mentioned  elsewhere  that  some 
old  and  valued  friends  of  Jack  Jebb'swere  living 
at  their  own  mine  a  few  miles  from  his  head- 
quarters. They  were  a  charming  couple  —  an 
American  lady  and  gentleman,  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  words:  clever,  cultivated,  witty,  —  perfect 
types  of  the  best  that  wonderful  nation  can  pro- 
duce, and  occasionally  does. 

If  the  friends  had  been  attached  before,  it  may 
easily  be  imagined  that  years  of  hardship  endured 
in  common,  and  an  almost  entire  dependence 
on  each  other  for  society,  had  made  the  bond 
between  the  two  families  stronger  than  ever. 
Therefore  when,  during  this  winter,  on  returning 
from  one  of  his  periodical  journeys,  Jack  found 
a  message  awaiting  him  from  the  other  camp, 
saying  that  Mr  A.  was  taken  seriously   ill,  he 


Jack  Jcbb  and  His  Neighbours.       165 

promptly  put  on  his  snow-shoes  again  and  started 
for  his  friend's  house. 

When  he  arrived  he  found  the  state  of  affairs 
even  worse  than  he  had  expected,  as  Mr  A.  was 
in  a  very  bad  way  indeed.  The  nature  of  the 
complaint  is  immaterial,  but  it  was  something 
which  required  immediate  medical  attention,  and 
there  was  no  doctor  nearer  than  the  settlement 
at  the  foot  of  the  range.  It  was  something,  too, 
which  grew  worse  with  every  hour  that  the 
patient  spent  in  that  freezing  air;  and  there  were 
no  means  of  getting  him  lower,  unless  he  could 
go  on  snow-shoes  —  a  manifest  impossibility. 
Mrs  A.  was  outwardly  calm,  but  it  was  easy  to 
see  that  her  anxiety  was  terrible  in  face  of  her 
helplessness  to  do  anything  to  save  her  husband, 
who  seemed  to  be  fast  slipping  out  of  existence 
simply  for  want  of  aid.  Jack  at  first  despaired 
of  being  able  to  help,  but  at  last  he  thought  of  a 
plan  which,  though  it  might  cost  both  his  own 
and  Mr  A.'s  life,  might  on  the  other  hand  save 
the  latter,  if  successful,  and  was  therefore  worth 
trying,  as  he  would  most  certainly  die  if  nothing 
were  done.  Mrs  A.  caught  at  the  idea  when  it 
was  suggested  to  her ;  but  she  utterly  refused  to 
let  Jack  take  any  risk  for  her  husband  which  was 
not  shared  by  herself,  and  after  some  argument 
she  was  allowed  to  have  her  own  way. 


1 66  Affairs  at  Denver. 

The  plan  was  for  the  invalid  to  be  enveloped 
in  furs  and  carried  to  the  edge  of  the  ridge, 
which  hung  over  the  next  plateau,  only  to  be 
reached  by  a  circuitous  trail.  Then  a  stout 
rope  was  to  be  secured  round  him,  and  after- 
wards passed  under  Jack's  arms,  leaving  them 
as  free  as  possible,  in  order  that  he  might  use 
one  for  steadying  Mr  A.  and  the  other  for  the 
terrible  descent  down  the  rocky  mountain-side 
which  he  contemplated.  His  idea  was  to  climb 
from  plateau  to  plateau  of  the  mountain,  finding 
a  foothold  in  the  projecting  rocks,  and  thereby 
performing  the  journey  more  quickly,  if  more 
hazardously,  than  by  the  circuitous  trail.  The 
rope  was  to  be  held  above  by  the  miners  —  not 
a  man  of  whom  would  have  grudged  his  life  if 
spent  in  Mrs  A.'s  service ;  and  if  the  two  friends 
reached  the  bottom  of  the  range  in  safety,  she  was 
to  be  fetched  by  Jack,  if  he  were  not  too  ex- 
hausted, and  taken  by  one  of  the  men  if  he  were. 
Of  course,  if  his  strength  failed  him  on  the  first 
journey,  nothing  could  prevent  both  his  charge 
and  himself  being  dashed  against  the  rocks  by 
the  jerking  of  the  rope,  when  a  hideous  death 
awaited  them.     But  it  was  the  only  chance. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  which  suffered  the 
most  when  that  perilous  journey  had  commenced 


Fast  Friends  to  the  Last.  167 

—  she  who  waited  above  in  sickening  suspense 
and  fear,  or  he  whose  arm  grew  numb  with  the 
heavy  inanimate  weight  he  partly  carried,  and 
whose  hand  was  torn  by  the  jagged  rocks  as  he 
held  on  for  his  life,  and  step  by  step  fought  his 
way  on  narrow  footholds  from  ledge  to  ledge, 
pausing  for  a  moment  on  each,  until  at  last 
he  stood  with  his  charge  in  the  valley  below  — 
triumphant,  but  spent. 

Once  at  the  bottom,  the  rest  was  easy,  and 
help  was  quickly  obtained  from  the  village  close 
by;  Jack  allowing  himself  a  brief  breathing- 
space,  while  Mr  A.  was  put  into  a  litter  and 
carried  to  the  inevitable  hotel  which  every  Amer- 
ican collection  of  a  dozen  houses  can  boast.  For- 
tunately this  particular  settlement  rejoiced  in  the 
rarer  possession  of  a  capital  doctor,  and  between 
his  services  and  the  mild  air  of  the  sheltered 
valley  the  invalid  quickly  recovered,  with,  if  any- 
thing, an  exaggerated  idea  of  what  he  owed  to 
Jack.  Strangely  enough,  fast  friends  all  their 
lives,  "  in  their  deaths  they  were  not  divided," 
for,  years  afterwards,  the  two  men,v  living  on 
different  sides  of  the  world,  went  down  into  the 
Valley  of  the  Shadow  they  had  faced  together, 
almost  at  the  same  time. 

But  to   return.     Directly  Jack  had   seen   the 


1 68  Affahs  at  Denver. 

husband  safely  housed,  he  went  back  for  the 
wife,  knowing  well  what  she  must  be  enduring, 
ignorant  as  she  was  of  their  fate.  She  might,  it 
is  true,  have  joined  her  husband  by  snow-shoe- 
ing over  the  path  which  wound  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom  of  the  mountain  ;  but  this,  besides 
being  a  terrible  journey,  would  have  taken  the 
whole  night,  thus  leaving  Mr  A.  alone  with 
strangers  at  a  time  when  he  most  needed  the 
care  of  his  wife.  Unweighted  by  any  burden, 
in  the  ascent  Jack  could  allow  himself  to  be 
simply  drawn  up  as  he  signalled,  without  much 
effort  on  his  own  part ;  therefore  when  he  reached 
the  top  he  felt  perfectly  able  to  take  Mrs  A. 
down  in  safety,  as  of  course  she  would  require 
less  help  than  the  invalid  had  wanted.  So  he 
insisted  on  accompanying  her,  and  once  in  the 
valley  for  the  second  time,  he  stopped  there  long 
enough  to  see  his  friend  well  on  his  way  back  to 
health  and  strength,  before  returning  to  the  camp 
by  the  longer  but  pleasanter  road  of  the  ordinary 
trail. 


CHAPTER   XL 

LAST   EFFORTS   AS   A   PIONEER. 

THE     WINTER    OF     1878     I.V     COLORADO AN    EXTRAORDINARY 

FROST  — A     TERRIBLE     JOURNEY     THROUGH     THE     STORM  

FAIRLY      BEATEN       BY      THE       WEATHER  AN      AVALANCHE 

SWEEPS    AWAY    AN     ENTIRE     CAMP  —  JACK    JEBB    LEADS    A 

SEARCH    PARTY  —  RISK    INCURRED     BY    THE     SEARCHERS  

SUCCESS  OF  THEIR  EFFORTS  —  THE  TROUBLES  ATTENDANT 
ON  MINING — THE  CONCERN  AT  DENVER  TURNS  OUT  PROFIT- 
LESS —  BACK  IN  NEW  YORK  —  BECOMES  A  PARTNER  IN 
AN  OMELETTE  COMPANY  —  AWAITING  DEVELOPMENTS  — 
CLOSES  WITH  A  PROPOSAL  TO  GO  OUT  TO  MEXICO  AS  A 
MANAGER   OF    MINES. 

THERE  is  yet  one  more  "  pioneering  "  incident 
to  be  told,  and  with  that  the  tale  of  Jack  Jebb's 
experiences  in  the  Rockies  may  be  concluded ; 
for  though  he  remained  there  until  about  J  88 1 , 
the  years  passed  evenly,  and  without  more  ad- 
venture than  might  occur  to  the  casual  traveller 
in  any  "  new  "  country. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  1878,  one  of  tlje  sever- 
est which  ever  passed  over  Colorado.  Rumours 
were  current  of  trains  being  snowed  up  for  days 
at  a  time  out  on  the  plains,  and  of  buffalo-hun- 
ters and  even   Indians  being   frozen  to  death, 


170  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

while  cattle  perished  by  thousands.  But  high 
up  in  the  mountains,  though  the  weather  had 
been  wild,  and  the  cold,  doubtless,  far  more  in- 
tense, people  suffered  but  little;  for  in  those 
deep  pine-clad  gorges  there  was  always  shelter. 
At  one  of  the  mines  in  which  Jack  and  his 
partners  were  interested,  and  which  was  situated 
far  above  timber-line,  the  works  had  been  frozen 
since  November,  and  the  camp  practically 
deserted  by  all  but  an  old  man,  three  women, 
and  the  lad  who  drove  the  teams  in  summer  and 
experimented  in  cooking  during  the  winter. 
But  as  this  was  the  nearest  point  and  lay  on  the 
best  trail  to  the  other  camps  which  Jack  must 
visit  periodically  during  the  snows,  he  resolved 
to  take  up  his  winter  quarters  here.  December 
set  in  badly:  storm  followed  storm,  piling  up 
the  snow  a  good  six  feet  around  the  house, 
while  at  the  head  of  the  gulch  it  was  twice  as 
deep.  But  the  great  fall  commenced  on  De- 
cember 18,  and  from  that  date  until  January  6' 
there  was  not  an  hour's  cessation.  The  snow 
came  down  ominously  day  by  day,  and  what 
the  intensest  cold  was,  no  one  ever  knew,  for 
again  and  again  the  mercury  was  found  frozen 
in  the  bulb,  although  the  thermometer  was  shel- 
tered in  an  outhouse !     The  meat  was  literally 


Break  in  the   Weather.  171 

as  hard  as  boards,  and  venison-steak  had  to  be 
cut  with  a  saw,  being  afterwards  hammered  into 
splinters  ! 

It  was  practically  impossible  to  go  out  of 
doors,  so  for  three  weeks  the  distant  camps 
remained  uninspected.  At  length,  one  Satur- 
day, there  were  some  signs  of  a  break  in  the 
weather;  and  as  they  had  been  striking  rich 
ore  in  one  of  the  mines  when  the  storm  began, 
Jack  decided  that  he  would  at  least  make  an 
effort  to  get  to  it.  Accordingly  he  set  off, 
although  the  wind  was  still  blowing  with  almost 
hurricane  force  down  the  valley,  and  it  took 
him  four  hours  to  reach  timber-line  —  a  distance 
of  only  three  miles.  Beyond  that  there  was 
of  course  no  shelter,  and  the  blast  roared  over 
the  bleak  slopes.  Now  and  then  he  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  high  ridge  of  snow-covered 
precipices  forming  the  backbone  of  the  range, 
but  more  often  he  could  see  nothing  but 
whirling  clouds  of  drift-snow  flying  past,  while 
the  air  seemed  filled  with  a  wild,  weird  music  — 
the  sharp  hissing  of  the  gusts  sweeping.over  the 
frozen  fields  in  front,  and  the  roar  of  the  wind 
through  the  pine-trees  behind. 

Once  for  a  moment  he  thought  he  saw  the 
"Bear"  mine  barracks,  to  which  he  was  bound, 


172  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

and  which  were  now  only  a  mile  farther  on ; 
and  he  began  to  have  visions  of  the  hot  bowl  of 
coffee  and  the  warm  welcome  that  awaited  him 
from  the  old  Cornish  foreman,  who,  with  his 
wife  and  child  and  four  miners,  constituted  the 
winter  garrison  of  the  mine.  But  they  were 
destined  to  remain  nothing  more  than  visions, 
for  as  he  left  the  shelter  of  the  pine  forest  and 
struck  out  into  the  open,  a  cross  eddy  of  wind 
threw  him  violently  down.  He  rose  and  tried 
again,  but  found  it  impossible  to  force  the 
long  Norwegian  snow-shoes  up-grade  against 
the  blast  —  it  was  like  trying  to  pole  a  canoe 
against  the  rapids  above  Niagara ;  and  he  was 
always  blown  back.  He  then  took  a  short  rest, 
and  discarding  the  snow-shoes,  tried  to  reach 
the  mine  on  foot,  trusting  to  the  frozen  snow- 
banks bearing  his  weight  between  the  occasional 
caps  of  rock  which  showed  here  and  there. 
Quite  in  vain —  for  within  five  minutes  one  ear 
became  frozen,  and  after  another'  halt  to  repair 
damages,  one  hand  was  in  like  case ;  besides 
which,  the  snow  did  not  bear,  and  falling  and 
wallowing  through  the  drifts  was  very  exhausting 
work :  so,  beaten  by  weather  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life,  Jack  reluctantly  gave  up  the  expedi- 
tion, and  with  the  wind   at  his  back  scudded 


Evil  Tidings.  173 

down-hill  to  the  camp  in  half  an  hour.  The 
next  day  the  snow  was  worse  than  ever;  but 
as  it  now  came  down  in  flakes  instead  of  drift- 
ing, the  impatient  peripatetic  miner  made  up 
his  mind  that  the  storm  was  breaking  at  last, 
and  that  he  would  not  be  kept  prisoner  much 
longer. 

Sure  enough,  the  next  morning,  Monday,  it 
had  almost  ceased,  and  he  was  peering  out  to 
see  if  there  was  any  use  in  venturing  again,  when 
he  caught  sight  of  a  man  on  snow-shoes  coming 
from  the  direction  of  the  other  camp.  From  the 
instant  Jack  first  saw  him  approaching  he  felt  a 
strange  presentiment  that  the  man  was  the  bearer 
of  evil  tidings,  and  when  he  drew  near  enough 
for  his  face  to  be  seen,  it  was  plain  from  its  ex- 
pression that  some  worse  calamity  than  usual 
had  befallen  the  exposed  mines  above.  But  no 
one  was  prepared  for  the  full  horror  of  his  first 
words,  "  The  '  Bear '  camp  is  gone,  and  every 
soul  in  it  lost !  " 

The  messenger  was  one  of  a  party  working  the 
second  mine,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  "  Bear," 
and  this  was  what  he  had  to  tell.  On  the  previous 
night,  a  man  minus  coat,  hat,  and  boots,  dazed 
with  cold  and  fear,  and  at  first  unable  to  speak, 
had  crept  into  their  cabin.     After  being  revived 


174  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

with  scalding  coffee  and  generally  cared  for,  they 
found  that  he  was  one  of  the  miners  from  the 
"Bear"  camp  —  what  had  been  the  "Bear" 
camp,  at  least  —  for  he  managed  to  let  them 
know  that  of  all  the  household  alive  and  busy  in 
the  morning,  he  was  the  sole  survivor  that  night. 
He  said  that,  having  finished  his  breakfast  that 
day  before  the  others,  he  got  up  from  the  table, 
leaving  the  rest  still  seated  there,  and  went  out 
to  the  powder-house  to  fetch  a  roll  of  fuse.  While 
inside  he  heard  a  great  roar,  and  felt  the  room 
lifting  with  him.  He  remembered  little  more, 
except  that  twice  after  a  violent  shaking  he  found 
himself  on  the  surface  of  the  snow;  the  second 
time  stationary,  with  his  head  and  shoulders  free. 
Somehow  he  dug  himself  out,  leaving  portions 
of  his  clothing  behind.  He  was  terribly  scared, 
of  course,  and  began  to  make  his  way  up-hill  to 
tell  his  brother  and  sister-in-law  —  the  foreman 
and  his  wife  —  of  the  narrow  escape  he  had 
experienced. 

He  found  that  he  had  been  carried  down  about 
two  hundred  yards,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him 
that  he  had  been  struck  by  only  the  outer  edge 
of  an  avalanche,  which  had  expended  its  full 
strength  on  the  cabin  above,  and  that  even  at 
that  moment  his  relations  and  companions  were 


Another  Avalanche.  175 

lying  dead  twenty  feet  below.  As  he  climbed, 
he  suddenly  stumbled  over  a  fresh,  broken  board, 
and  a  few  shingles  came  hurtling  past  like  leaves. 
That  told  him  all.  He  had  no  recollection  of 
how  long  he  wandered  about  searching  for  some 
trace  of  those  he  had  left  alive  and  well  a  few 
moments  before,  but  at  last  he  started  for  the 
valley  below  to  ask  for  help. 

How  it  happened  that,  half-dressed  as  he  was, 
he  did  not  freeze  to  death,  no  one  could  tell, 
unless  the  intense  excitement  from  which  he 
was  suffering  kept  him  warm.  At  last  he  reached 
an  old  sawmill,  and  resolved  to  camp  there; 
but  he  had  only  just  lit  a  fire,  when  another 
avalanche  crashed  and  roared  down  the  steep 
mountain-side,  cutting  a  broad  swathe  through 
the  forest,  and  sweeping  away  the  end  of  the 
mill  as  if  it  had  been  made  of  paper.  This 
must  have  completely  shattered  the  little  nerve 
the  man  had  left,  for  instead  of  going  on  down 
the  valley  to  a  camp,  he  turned  back  up  the 
range,  and  only  by  the  merest  chance,  or  God's 
mercy,  reached  the  cabin  where  the  other  miners 
were  wintering  —  the  only  living  men  on  that 
mountain. 

Now,  in  Colorado  there  used  to  be  an  eleventh 
commandment  which  was  generally  better  ob- 


176  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

served  than  the  orthodox  ten,  and  it  was  to  the 
effect  that  if  a  man  dropped  in  his  tracks,  or 
chanced  to  be  swept  down  by  a  snow-slide,  all 
that  his  comrades  could  do  to  find  the  body  and 
give  it  decent  burial  must  be  done.  No  one  liked 
the  idea  that  it  might  fall  to  his  own  lot  to  be 
dug  up  by  foxes  or  stray  bears ;  and  when  men 
carried  their  lives  in  their  hands  as  often  as  not, 
it  was  a  sort  of  satisfaction  to  feel  that  a  search- 
party  would  be  out  as  soon  as  any  one  was 
missed. 

Therefore  Jack's  course  was  clear.  The  man 
who  had  brought  the  news  was  too  exhausted  to 
be  of  any  further  use  ;  but  Tom,  the  old  man  in 
camp,  was  a  seasoned  vessel,  as  was  Jack  him- 
self in  those  days.  The  cook-boy  wanted  to 
join  in  the  search  ;  but  he  was  only  just  recover- 
ing from  rheumatic  fever,  and  his  joints  were 
still  too  swelled  and  tender  to  admit  of  his  doing 
such  wild  work.  He  insisted,  however,  on  car- 
rying the  news  to  the  lower  valley,  with  a  view 
to  sending  on  all  the  volunteers  he  could  gather ; 
and  half  crippled  though  he  was,  he  made  splen- 
did time  on  his  snow-shoes. 

So  Jack  and  the  old  man  started,  carrying 
with  them  a  blanket  each,  some  frozen  meat, 
biscuits,  tea,  and  a  couple  of  bottles  of  brandy, 


Escaped  Alan  Snow-Blind.  177 

which,  with  long-handled  shovels,  that  also 
served  as  balance-poles,  was  about  as  much  as 
they  could  manage.  They  reached  timber-line 
easily  enough,  and  were  fully  expecting  to 
arrive  at  the  mine  before  night-fall,  when  by 
some  mischance  Jack's  snow-shoe  broke,  and  he 
found  himself  up  to  the  neck  in  fine  drift-snow. 
It  took  him  nearly  two  hours  to  cover  the  next 
hundred  yards,  but  probably  the  exertion  was 
all  that  saved  him  from  freezing.  His  compan- 
ion, meanwhile,  had  gone  on  to  the  other  mine 
for  a  spare  shoe  ;  but  as  it  was  nearly  dark  by 
the  time  he  returned,  they  decided  that  they 
must  spend  the  night  at  this  camp,  instead  of 
trying  to  get  to  their  destination.  They  found 
the  poor  fellow  who  had  escaped,  lying  there  in 
a  bunk,  snow-blind,  and  so  stiff  from  the  bruis- 
ing and  wrenching  he  had  been  subjected  to 
that  he  could  scarcely  move. 

That  was  a  terrible  night,  and  no  one  slept, 
for  though  the  snow  was  deep  above  the  log-hut, 
and  its  inmates  were  comparatively  safe,  it  was 
not  reassuring  to  hear  two  more  avalanches 
roaring  down  the  mountain  no  great  distance 
away.  About  midnight  Jack  thought  he  heard 
a  faint  shout.  It  seemed  impossible  that  any 
one  should  be  there ;   still  he  went  out,  climbed 


178  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

the  high  snow-drift  round  the  door,  and  showed 
a  light,  firing  a  shot  at  the  same  time  ;  when, 
sure  enough,  another  faint  cry  came  down  the 
wind.  A  few  minutes  later  a  man  hove  in 
sight,  in  whom  Jack  recognised  an  old  soldier, 
who,  after  bearing  his  part  in  the  war,  had  gone 
out  West,  and  was  now  one  of  the  best  known 
trappers  in  the  State.  Powerful  as  he  was,  he 
was  almost  exhausted  by  the  fifteen  miles  he 
had  just  travelled  in  the  dark  and  against  the 
storm.  After  getting  him  into  a  bunk  and 
doctoring  him  with  a  hot  drink,  Jack  naturally 
asked  why  none  of  his  companions  had  accom- 
panied him. 

"  Wal,  boss,"  was  the  reply,  "  there  ain't  none 
of  the  mining  hands  in  the  valley  just  now,  and 
I  guess  them  ranchers  ain't  much  count,  for 
they  allowed  there  warn't  no  show  for  getting 
the  bodies  out  before  spring,  and  it  was  giving 
live  men  for  dead  'uns  to  try.  So  of  course  I 
came  on  alone,  though  there  ain't  one  chance 
in  ten  thousand  of  our  finding  any  of  'em  alive 
now.      Still  we've  got  to  do  our  best." 

Between  4  and  5  A.M.  there  was  a  slight  lull, 
while  here  and  there  a  star  could  be  seen  ;  so 
the  party  started  on  their  melancholy  errand, 
and  in  little  more  than  an  hour  they  reached  the 


Scene  at  Dawn.  179 

plateau,  just  under  the  precipices  of  the  horse- 
shoe bend,  where  the  lost  cabin  had  stood. 

And  now  came  the  question,  Where  to  dig? 
for  not  one  familiar  landmark  remained.  So 
tremendous  had  been  the  avalanche  which  had 
descended  on  the  place,  that  at  least  fifteen 
acres  of  ground  were  covered,  ten  to  twenty 
feet  deep,  with  hard-packed  snow.  Of  the 
buildings  there  was  no  trace  to  be  seen,  except 
a  few  fragments  of  wreckage  scattered  for  five 
hundred  yards  over  the  mountain-side.  How- 
ever, after  sinking  a  number  of  trial  pits,  they 
became  pretty  certain  of  the  spot,  and  began  to 
drive  an  incline  intended  to  reach  to  a  little 
below  where  the  house  had  stood,  shouldered 
against  a  great  rock  too  deeply  imbedded  to 
be  shaken,  even  by  an  avalanche. 

As  the  sun  rose,  they  caught  occasional 
glimpses  through  the  driving  snow  of  the  great 
horse-shoe  above  them,  and  the  line  of  crags 
beyond  that,  which  appeared  to  be  bearing  up 
thousands  of  tons  of  fresh  snow  on  the  place 
from  which  the  fatal  mass  had  fallen.  The 
newly  formed  pile  of  white  flakes  seemed  ready 
to  give  way  at  any  moment,  and  added  an  un- 
looked-for risk  to  those  which  the  searchers 
were  already  incurring.     Fortunately  the  wind 


i8o  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

was  now  blowing  direct  into  the  horse-shoe  and 
helping  to  hold  the  snow  back. 

Very  soon  a  more  immediate  trouble  overtook 
them.  Old  Tom  ceased  work,  utterly  worn  out. 
Then  the  old  soldier  began  to  bleed  from  the 
lungs,  where  a  Confederate  bayonet  had  nearly 
found  his  life,  at  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 
years  ago.  At  a  little  distance  was  a  single  out- 
building which  had  escaped  the  general  de- 
struction, and  here  Jack  built  a  fire,  setting  the 
two  exhausted  men  to  warm  by  it  alternately  — 
the  one  on  duty  to  stand  at  the  door  and  watch 
the  great  drift  overhead,  so  that  at  the  first 
symptom  of  a  slide,  the  men  digging  below 
might  be  warned,  and  have  some  slight  chance 
for  their  lives.  They  were  of  course  sheltered, 
and  their  work  kept  them  warm  ;  but  the  sick 
men  had  a  hard  time  of  it,  for  in  that  icy  hurri- 
cane it  was  impossible  to  mount  guard  for  more 
than  ten  minutes  at  a  time  without  beginning  to 
freeze.  Deeper  and  deeper  dug  the  forlorn-hope, 
meanwhile,  and  soon  fragments  of  the  wreck 
became  frequent — pieces  of  broken  crockery, 
billets  of  firewood,  the  door  of  a  stove,  and  once 
a  large  piece  of  uncooked  beef,  which  at  first 
they  took  for  something  else. 

Hour  after  hour  they  worked,  and  had  sunk 


The  Ruined  Camp.  181 

an  incline  thirty  feet  deep,  when  about  two 
o'clock  Jack  found  a  pipe-stem  sticking  up.  He 
gently  removed  the  caked  snow  about  it,  until 
he  saw  the  whitish-grey  fingers  of  the  dead  man 
to  whom  it  belonged  closely  clutching  the  bowl 
of  the  pipe.  The  tobacco  was  just  scorched,  no 
more:  he  had  been  lighting  it  when  death  over- 
took him.  Lying  partly  across  this  bod)'  was 
that  of  another  man  who  had  been  taken  in  the 
act  of  pulling  on  his  great  miner's  boots.  The 
face  of  each  was  covered  by  an  ice-mask,  which 
when  broken  showed  the  features  beneath  it  un- 
disturbed, untroubled  by  pain.  Death  had  come 
quickly,  and  they  slept. 

Soon  there  was  a  change  in  the  hard-packed 
snow,  which  the  diggers  found  thawed  away  from 
the  kettle  and  the  overturned  stove.  Thrown 
across  the  latter  was  the  body  of  the  dead  fore- 
man's little  child :  it  was  frightfully  mangled 
and  burnt,  but  they  thanked  God  she  could  not 
have' suffered,  for  a  breaking  beam  had  crushed 
her  head.  They  had  now  reached  the  ground, 
and  were  working  up-hill.  They  came  next  to 
part  of  one  end  of  the  house,  where  the  boards 
had  formed  a  sort  of  floor;  and  never  to  his  last 
day  could  Jack  forget  the  ghastly  horror  of  the 
face  he  found    there,   with    frozen   glassy  eyes 


1 82  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

looking  into  his  !  It  was  the  foreman's  wife,  who 
had  been  hurled  backwards.  An  overturned 
table  and  some  planks  had  by  chance  fallen  over 
her,  resting  at  the  same  time  against  part  of  the 
stone  foundations,  and  entirely  protecting  her 
body  from  the  crushing  weight  of  snow  above. 
Her  arms  were  pinned  down,  and  there  was  a 
splinter  through  her  cheek;  otherwise  she  was 
uninjured,  and  the  awful  horror  of  her  terrible 
fate  was  stamped  in  full  consciousness  upon  her 
features. 

One  by  one  the  awed  and  silent  searchers  bore 
their  sad  burdens  to  the  old  storehouse.  The 
last  to  be  taken  was  the  foreman,  a  huge  and 
burly  Cornishman,  who,  though  far  heavier  than 
Jack,  seemed  to  the  latter  to  weigh  nothing,  as 
in  the  intense  strain  of  nervous  excitement  he 
carried  the  body  up  the  incline.  Even  when 
all  was  done,  he  did  not  at  the  time  feel  tired, 
nor  did  he  notice  that  his  gloves  were  cut  to 
ribbons,  and  his  hands  a  mass  of  blisters.  But 
two  hours  later,  when  they  had  nearly  reached 
the  camp,  he  began  to  feel  strangely  done  up. 
He  had  occasion  to  make  some  remark,  and 
found  that  he  had  entirely  lost  his  voice.  The 
last  two  hundred  yards  he  could  scarcely  keep 
his  feet,  and  once  indoors  —  he  sat  down  and 


Obliged  to  Close  the    Works.  183 

cried  like  a  child  !  Sheer  bodily  and  mental 
exhaustion,  of  course.  He  had  been  digging 
desperately  since  daylight,  and  altogether  had 
passed  through  the  hardest  day  he  ever  spent  in 
his  life. 

The  rest  of  the  winter  sped  quickly  and  un- 
eventfully, except  for  the  vagaries  of  the  mines, 
which  seemed  to  be  almost  human  in  their  con- 
trariness and  misfortunes.  Directly  a  rich  streak 
of  ore  was  struck,  they  would  take  the  opportu- 
nity to  get  snowed  up,  or  the  machinery  would 
break  down  ;  and  if  these  resources  failed,  the 
find  would  turn  out  to  be  only  a  "  pocket,"  and 
consequently  not  of  much  value. 

Surely  there  is  no  other  Will-o'-the-wisp  so 
fascinating  to  its  possessor  as  a  mine.  There 
it  is  before  you,  clad  in  its  robes  of  gold  or 
silver,  luring  you  on  with  hopes  of  the  brilliant 
future  it  promises,  and  when  it  has  absorbed  all 
that  you  have  to  give,  the  glittering  vision  fades 
from  sight,  leaving  you  probably  too  infatuated 
with  its  elusive  charms  to  wholly  believe  how 
shadowy  they  are.  What  happened  in  the  pres- 
ent case  was,  that  much  of  the  ore  did  not  pay 
for  working,  and  the  capital  of  the  little  company 
gave  out  before  they  got  to  the  rich  veins  which 
they  knew  to  be  there.     They  naturally  clung 


184  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

to  their  property  as  long  as  there  was  a  ghost  of 
a  chance  of  doing  anything  with  it;  but  at  last, 
about  1 88 1,  they  were  obliged  to  shut  down  the 
works  and  retire,  utterly  beaten  and  heart-sick 
by  the  long  years  of  hopes  and  fears,  hardships 
and  dangers,  which  had  led  to  such  meagre 
results.  The  usual  irony  of  fate  was  fully  ex- 
emplified by  the  fact  that  the  mines  were  pur- 
chased by  a  company  which,  beginning  with 
fresh  capital  just  where  the  others  had  left  off, 
of  course  reaped  the  benefit  of  their  labour,  and 
quickly  made  the  business  into  a  flourishing 
concern. 

With  the  work  of  years  wasted,  and  his  capital 
vanished,  Jack  found  himself  back  in  New  York 
again  at  rather  a  loose  end.  But  surely  no  one 
can  be  seriously  unhappy  for  long  in  a  city 
where  the  sun  shines  most  of  the  year,  and 
oysters  are  only  yd.  a  dozen  !  where  you  can 
dine  at  Dorlon's  too,  not  Delmonico's,  and  for 
a  reasonable  sum  can  have  (usually  waking) 
dreams  all  night  of  Boston  stew,  soft-shell  crab, 
and  roasted  lobster,  followed  by  a  Welsh  rare- 
bit such  as  can  be  found  in  no  other  place. 

Jack  knew  a  good  many  financial  people  by 
this  time  —  though  that  fact  is  not  put  forward 
as  an  unmixed  joy  —  and  his  services  were  very 


Remarkable  Commissions.  185 

soon  invoked  for  the  formation  of  what  his 
friends  at  home  always  insisted  on  calling  the 
Omelette  Company.  It  was  really  a  small  com- 
pany started  for  the  introduction  of  a  new  in- 
vention which  was  intended  to  take  the  place 
of  eggs  in  domestic  cookery,  and  which  was 
cheap  and  not  outrageously  nasty.  The  com- 
pany (consisting  of  the  original  promoters  only) 
is  still  dragging  out  a  precarious  and  unap- 
preciated existence  somewhere  in  the  States ; 
but,  of  course,  Jack  Jebb  never  made  anything 
out  of  it,  nor  probably  was  it  ever  intended  that 
he  should.  His  own  ready  belief  and  honesty 
of  purpose  always  made  him  an  easy  prey  for 
any  sharp  man  of  business  who  knew  how  to 
utilise  his  capacity  for  hard  work  without  letting 
him  discover  that  some  of  the  work  might  be 
a  little  soiled.  When  he  did  find  out  anything 
of  the  sort,  like  most  trustful  people,  he  never 
forgave  the  person  who  had  deceived  him. 

The  Omelette  affair  kept  him  travelling  be- 
tween London  and  New  York  for  some  little  time, 
and  the  commissions  with  which  he  used  to  be 
charged  by  English  friends  for  relations  on  the 
"  other  side  "  were  truly  remarkable.  He  took 
a  lady  in  to  dinner  once  who  asked  him  if,  while 
he  was  in  New  York,  he  would  try  to  see  a  little 


1 86  Last  Efforts  as  a  Pioneer. 

of  her  nephew  in  Arkansas ;  and  another  sent  a 
parcel  to  meet  him  at  Liverpool,  which  she  said 
she  should  be  greatly  obliged  if  he  would  per- 
sonally deliver  in  Washington.  If  the  average 
Britisher  is  rather  vague  about  American  geog- 
raphy, however,  the  Americans  do  not  treat  us 
with  much  more  respect ;  for  in  Texas  there 
used  to  be  a  school  manual  which,  after  dismiss- 
ing England  and  Scotland  in  about  six  lines, 
remarked  briefly,  "  Ireland,  a  small  island  mis- 
governed by  the  English."  To  see  the  terror  of 
many  Administrations  thus  summarily  disposed 
of,  was  a  sight  to  fill  the  down-trodden  Britisher 
with  awe  and  admiration. 

During  the  years  he  had  spent  "out  West," 
Jack,  of  course,  had  often  been  to  Texas  on  one 
pretext  or  another ;  but  as  nothing  worse  hap- 
pened to  him  there  than  once  having  to  spend 
a  Fourth  of  July  in  a  rowdy  little  town  where 
the  day  was  celebrated  by  pistol-shots  in  the 
intervals  of  orthodox  fireworks,  it  has  been  un- 
necessary to  chronicle  his  journeyings  in  detail. 

When  the  egg  business  was  organised,  it 
seemed  —  for  a  time  —  in  a  fair  way  to  do  well ; 
and  as  there  was  little  that  he  could  do  towards 
its  general  management,  Jack  turned  his  atten- 
tion  to    other   business  while  awaiting   further 


Decides  to  go  to  Mexico.  187 

developments.  Therefore,  when  some  overtures 
were  made  to  him  in  London  with  a  view  to  his 
going  out  to  Mexico,  he  was  delighted  at  the 
prospect;  especially  as  the  object  of  his  journey 
was  to  inspect  and  report  upon  the  capacities  of 
a  group  of  mines — work  which  he  both  liked 
and  understood.  The  mines  were  situated  in  a 
remote  part  of  the  country,  and  reaching  them 
would  necessitate  some  rough  travelling  —  also, 
in  his  eyes,  a  distinct  gain. 

He  was  now,  with  the  exception  of  his  child, 
once  more  alone  in  the  world,  and  his  remaining 
aunt  having  taken  charge  of  the  little  girl,  Jack 
felt  free  to  resume —  if,  indeed,  he  had  ever  left 
off —  his  wandering  life. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  LAND   OF   MONTEZUMA. 

DIFFERENT  WAYS  OF  GETTING  TO  MEXICO — HAVANA  —  MEXI- 
CAN LADIES  —  VERACRUZ  —  JACK  JEBB  TAKES  THE  RAIL- 
WAY ROUTE  FROM  NEW  YORK  —  EVENTS  OF  THE  JOURNEY  — 

THE    TOWN  OF   MEXICO  —  HIS    DESTINATION PICTURESQUE 

SCENERY  —  IS  THE  FIRST  EUROPEAN  IN  THESE  SIERRAS  — 
SECURES  A  FAITHFUL    BODYGUARD  —  FRIENDLINESS  OF  THE 

WORKMEN  —  "POVERTY     ROW  "  —  A     DYNAMITE     SCARE  

DOMESTIC     DIFFICULTIES    AND    HOW    MET  —  AN     INGENIOUS 

OFFICIAL  —  A  PRIMITIVE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY THE  SPLENDID 

CLIMATE  —  THE  PADRE  AND  HIS  SALARY  —  AN  ENCOUR- 
AGEMENT TO  MATRIMONY  —  RELICS  OF  THE  OLD  AZTEC 
WORSHIP. 

There  are  several  ways  of  getting  to  Mexico. 
You  may  go  direct  from  Southampton  to  Vera 
Cruz,  touching  at  many  of  the  West  Indian 
islands  en  route,  and  sailing  smoothly  over 
summer  seas,  until  you  begin  to  feel  like  a 
lotos-eater,  ever  "falling  asleep  in  a  half  dream." 
When  the  dream  and  the  voyage  are  alike  over, 
and  you  have  to  awake  to  everyday  life  again, 
it  is  some  time  before  you  can  take  up  your 
burden  exactly  where  you  laid  it  down.  Or  if 
you  want  to  call  at  New  York  on  your  way,  and 


Havana.  1 89 

yet  perform  the  journey  by  sea,  you  can  get  a 
ship  from  there  taking  you  past  Hatteras  — 
where  you  will  probably  meet  with  "weather" 
—  along  the  coast  of  Florida,  and  so  into  the 
calm  blue  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  ships  all 
touch  at  Havana;  and  supposing  there  is  not 
too  much  "  Yellow  Jack  "  about,  you  may  land 
to  take  a  look  at  the  pale  Cuban  beauties,  who, 
in  their  cool  white  gowns,  seem  to  be  ever 
sitting  at  their  barred  windows,  gazing  down  on 
the  turmoil  of  a  life  in  which  they  bear  so  small 
a  part.  With  their  black  eyes  and  hair,  their 
beautiful  teeth  and  delicate  olive  complexions, 
many  of  them  would  be  lovely  could  they  only 
be  content  with  their  natural  charms.  But  alas  ! 
they  are  one  and  all  covered  with  a  thick  white 
powder,  which  makes  their  faces  into  ghastly 
expressionless  masks,  only  the  brilliant  eyes  and 
gleaming  teeth  showing  through  to  tell  of  the 
passionate  nature   beneath. 

Leaving  Havana,  the  ship  calls  at  various 
half-Indian  villages  scattered  along  the  coast  of 
Mexico,  and  while  she  is  unloading  her  cargo  the 
elite  of  the  town  crowd  on  board  —  usually  clad 
in  last  year's  Paris  fashions  except  as  to  their 
hats,  and  where  those  come  from  no  human  being 
has  yet  discovered.  Huge  erections,  covered  with 


190  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

lace,  ribbon,  feathers,  and  flowers,  apparently 
taken  up  in  a  bunch  and  thrown  on  haphazard, 
they  are  a  sight  to  make  the  simple  European 
gasp  for  breath  !  He  usually  does  gasp  —  with 
relief  —  when  the  ship  is  on  her  way  again  and 
the  visitors  all  gone  ;  for  they  each  have  a  theory 
that  they  know  how  to  play  the  piano,  and  all 
the  time  the  vessel  is  in  port  they  make  "  Napo- 
leon cross  the  Alps  "  and  "  The  Maiden  pray  " 
unceasingly.  Their  repertoire  is  not  extensive, 
and  those  two  horrors  of  one's  school-days 
usually  comprise  it.  Altogether,  in  taking  this 
route,  the  unsophisticated  traveller  is  not  sorry 
when  the  white  walls  of  Vera  Cruz  are  in  sight, 
and  he  can  land  at  about  the  hottest,  the  dirtiest, 
and  the  most  forsaken-looking  city  in  the  world. 
After  a  night  spent  on  a  bed  composed  of  a 
piece  of  sacking  stretched  across  a  bedstead,  and 
in  company  with  a  class  of  mosquitoes  whose 
desire  for  human  society  no  curtains  can  thwart, 
he  is  only  too  glad  to  arise  at  5  A.M.  to  catch  the 
daily  train,  which,  after  a  day  spent  in  climbing 
through  stupendously  magnificent  scenery,  lands 
him,  8000  feet  above  sea-level,  in  the  city  of 
Mexico  by  evening. 

But  if  time  is  an   object,  it  is  best  to  go  on 
from  New  York  by  rail  instead  of  taking  either 


Railway  Travel.  191 

of  the  pleasanter  but  much  slower  routes.  There 
are  comfortable  Pullman  cars,  on  which  for  the 
first  three  days  you  can  get  your  food.  After 
that  the  train  stops  at  miserable  little  stations  at 
odd  hours  for  the  refreshment  of  the  passengers, 
and  you  may  have  to  eat  your  breakfast  at  5 
A.M.,  with  the  option  of  going  without  and  not 
getting  another  meal  until  the  train  stops  again 
perhaps  at  5  P.M. !  The  road  runs  for  the  most 
part  through  a  perfect  Sahara  of  dust  and  dreari- 
ness; but  as  the  entire  journey  only  takes  six 
days,  it  is  possible  to  live  through  it,  though  you 
emerge  at  the  other  end  feeling  a  shaken,  dirty, 
and  aged  wreck. 

This  is  the  route  that  Jack  Jebb  took  on  his 
first  visit  to  Mexico  in  search  of  that  El  Dorado 
which  had  eluded  him  so  long.  If  omens  go  for 
anything,  he  was  not  likely  to  find  it  even  now, 
for  the  journey  was  most  inauspicious.  He  had 
not  gone  far  when  he  discovered  that  somehow 
he  had  miscalculated  his  expenses;  and  not  quite 
midway  between  New  York  and  Mexico  he  found 
himself  with  only  half-a-dozen  dollars  left,  and  a 
draft  which  was  useless  anywhere  except  at  his 
destination.  On  an  American  railroad  you  pay 
for  your  ticket  before  you  start,  but  your  bed 
has  to  be  paid  for  nightly  at  $1  a  night,  and  your 


192  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

meals  at  the  same  price,  as  you  take  them. 
Therefore,  Jack  was  confronted  by  the  stern 
necessity  of  going  either  sleepless  or  hungry  for 
four  days.  All  things  considered,  he  chose  the 
latter,  because  after  paying  for  his  berth  he  would 
still  have  $2  left,  which  even  at  a  Western  station 
would  buy  bread  enough  to  keep  him  from  star- 
vation for  four  days,  while  he  decidedly  quailed 
from  the  prospect  of  sitting  bolt-upright  for  four 
nights  on  the  chairs  which  a  thoughtful  railway 
directorate  provides  for  day  use  only.  He  soon 
found  to  his  dismay  that  his  choice  entailed 
remaining  thirsty  also,  for  the  water  on  the  cars 
was  warm  and  dirty  —  a  sort  of  concentrated 
essence  of  microbes.  His  means,  of  course, 
would  not  allow  of  "  drinks  " ;  and  though  not 
usually  deficient  in  moral  courage,  he  felt  incap- 
able of  asking  for  water  at  an  American  refresh- 
ment counter !  —  especially  as  the  last  two  days 
he  had  to  be  very  careful  in  his  purchase  of 
bread,  for  even  that  commodity  is  dear  at  a  way- 
side station. 

It  was  the  middle  of  summer,  and  the  sun  beat- 
ing down  on  the  cars  all  day  made  them  intoler- 
ably hot ;  while  the  dust  outside  was  so  thick 
that  not  only  was  it  impossible  to  open  a  window, 
but  even  with  every  aperture  hermetically  closed, 


The   Toivn  of  Mexico.  193 

the  fine  choking  sand  seemed  to  blow  into  the 
train  in  clouds.  The  thirst  was  worse  than  the 
hunger  to  endure,  and  how  slowly  the  hours  went 
by  on  the  last  day  no  one  who  has  not  suffered 
in  a  similar  fashion  could  imagine.  At  last 
Mexico  was  reached  !  Jack  called  a  cab,  drove 
straight  to  the  bank,  got  his  draft  cashed,  and 
with  much  speed  betook  himself  to  a  restaurant, 
a  solid  meal,  and  a  long,  long  drink  of  "Bass's 
Bitter." 

He  wanted  to  be  at  the  mines  as  quickly  as 
possible,  and  therefore  did  not  then  linger  long 
in  the  big,  dirty,  old,  old  city,  which  seems  always 
to  be  haunted  by  memories  of  those  brave  and 
silent  Aztec  warriors,  who  looked  on  with  rigid 
expressionless  faces  while  the  conquering  Span- 
iards tore  down  their  impenetrable  stone  idols, 
setting  up  the  Inquisition  in  their  place. 

The  way  to  the  mines  was  easy  enough  at  first 
—  a  day's  rail,  and  then  a  night  spent  in  a  clean 
little  hotel  in  a  clean  little  town,  where  every 
second  building  is  a  church,  and  where  the  in- 
habitants are  so  truly  devout  that  they  occasion- 
ally arise  and  (literally)  stone  Protestants  to  this 
day  !  After  this  came  two  days  on  mulcback  ;  and 
although  a  mule  may  be  possessed  of  excellent 
qualities,  he  does  not  often  allow  himself  to  rev  eal 
13 


194  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

them  to  his  rider!  Still,  the  scenery  was  lovely 
enough  to  compensate  for  a  good  deal  of  discom- 
fort in  the  survey.  The  road  wound  through 
deep  can  ons  and  rocky  gorges  —  where  the  sound 
of  a  voice  reverberated  like  thunder — until  it 
came  out  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  leading  to 
the  Indian  village  for  which  Jack  was  bound. 
The  last  thirty  miles,  though  it  took  seven  hours 
to  ride,  was  well  worth  the  trouble  ;  for  the  narrow 
mountain-track,  going  ever  higher  and  higher, 
led  through  picturesque  ravines  lined  with  vary- 
ing ferns,  and  around  precipices  where,  by  the 
least  false  step,  a  man  might  fall,  to  remain  for 
eternity  a  shapeless  heap  at  the  bottom.  Not  a 
crevice  of  the  mountains  but  had  its  history  of 
the  brave  handful  of  faithful  people  who  held 
their  own  in  the  rocky  fastnesses  against  four 
times  their  number  of  rebels,  in  the  struggle 
which  sent  Maximilian  to  his  unmerited  death. 
The  Cacique  who  ruled,  and  virtually  owned, 
these  sierras  where  the  little  mining-town  slum- 
bered peacefully,  had  been  working  the  mines 
in  a  primitive  way  all  his  life,  but  had  at  last 
awoke  to  the  superiority  of  nineteenth-century 
methods,  as  against  those  employed  at  about 
the  time  of  the  Otomies.  Hence  Mr  Jebb's 
mission.     It  turned  out   that  he  was   the  first 


A  FaitJiful  Bodyguard.  195 

European  who  had  ever  penetrated  into  this 
mountain  abode  of  unmixed  Indians,  and  the 
old  Cacique  was  a  little  doubtful  of  his  reception 
by  the  villagers.  He  therefore  had  an  escort 
awaiting  him  on  his  arrival,  consisting  of  a  cap- 
tain and  six  soldiers,  and  Jack  afterwards  learnt 
that  they  had  orders  to  shoot  at  sight  the  first 
person  who  cast  an  unfriendly  eye  on  El  Inglesc. 
They  did  their  duty  nobly,  never  leaving  his  side 
for  an  instant.  He  used  to  fall  over  them  sleep- 
ing outside  his  door  in  the  mornings,  and  run 
against  them  down  mines,  up  mountains,  and 
in  every  sort  of  unlikely  place. 

He  was  once  exploring  a  peculiarly  dangerous 
and  ruined  old  "  fox-earth,"  politely  called  a 
mine,  and  had  got  about  three  hundred  feet 
down  a  monkey-pole,1  when,  looking  round,  he 
found  that  he  was  being  closely  followed  by  a 
couple  of  cavalrymen  in  full  regimentals  !  Their 
carbines  were  slung  across  their  shoulders,  their 
swords  dangling  between  their  legs;  and  their 
faces  of  ghastly  horror,  as  they  crept  down 
those  poles,  were  worth  seeing.  They  had  both 
been    under    fire,    but    had    never   been    undcr- 

1  A  monkey-pole,  it  may  not  be  generally  known,  is  a  long 
pole  in  which  at  regular  intervals  are  cut  notches  for  the  feet 
to  he  placed  in  when  descending  a  mine  that  possesses  no  cage, 
and  considerable  nerve  is  required  for  its  use. 


ig6  TJie  Land  of  Montezuma. 

ground  before,  and  they  said  that  as  a  matter  of 
personal  safety  they  preferred  battles.  Later 
on,  when  the  works  were  in  full  swing,  and 
several  Englishmen  employed  there,  a  company 
of  infantry  was  quartered  in  the  town  to  take 
care  of  them.  But  the  natives  had  taken  kindly 
to  Jack  from  the  first,  and  did  not  seem  inclined 
to  interfere  with  the  others.  So  the  lieutenant 
in  charge  —  an  amiable  caballero,  with  a  culti- 
vated taste  for  Scotch  whisky  —  grew  tired  of  a 
post  which  was  such  a  sinecure.  His  desire  for 
employment  grew  upon  him,  until  one  day  he 
said  to  Jack,  "  Are  you  sure,  senor,  that  no  one 
has  threatened  you  since  you  have  been  here?  " 

"  Not  in  the  slightest  degree,"  he  was  told. 

"Well,  then,  has  any  one  been  at  all  uncivil 
to  you?  "  was  the  next  question. 

"  On  the  contrary,  they  have  all  been  kind  and 
helpful,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Then,  senor,"  asked  the  lieutenant,  "  is  there 
any  one  you  don 7  like  ?  Because,"  and  he  tapped 
his  revolver  significantly,  "  my  men  have  nothing 
to  do,  and  idleness  is  bad  for  them  !  " 

Fortunately  for  the  unoffending  natives,  Jack 
loved  them  all — or  said  so — and  the  officer 
withdrew  in  a  highly  dissatisfied  mood.  He  had 
taken    possession    of  a   primary  school    (lately 


Friendliness  of  the  Natives.  197 

started  by  the  Federal  Government)  for  a  bar- 
rack, giving  the  children  six  months'  holidays  — 
which  goes  to  show  the  freedom,  the  liberty,  and 
absence  of  tyrannous  practices  in  a  republic. 

As  the  natives  of  the  sierra  soon  began  to  re- 
cognise the  advantages  of  regular  work  and  regu- 
lar pay  with  the  English  company —  a  state  of 
things  to  which  they  were  totally  unaccustomed 
—  their  attitude  became  so  friendly  that  the 
guard  was  withdrawn  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
regiment,  and  the  strangers  were  left  to  their 
own  devices. 

The  mines  being  entirely  satisfactory,  and  the 
company  likely  to  take  root,  one  of  the  first  con- 
siderations was  to  build  some  sort  of  accommo- 
dation for  the  staff.  Accordingly  a  number  of 
peons  were  set  to  work  to  erect  a  small  wooden 
house  for  the  superintendent,  and  a  continuous 
line  of  rooms  a  little  farther  off,  which,  from  the 
blank  bareness  of  their  appearance,  were  imme- 
diately christened  "  Poverty  Row."  One  of  these 
was  turned  into  an  office,  Jack  appropriated  a 
couple,  and  the  rest  were  used  for  the  reception 
of  the  clerks,  &c,  and  for  the  storing  of  dyna- 
mite. Everybody  settled  down  steadily  to  work, 
and  the  superintendent  sent  for  his  wife  and 
family  —  the  latter  a  large  and  turbulent  quantity 


198  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

—  who  arrived  much  dilapidated  by  the  long 
journey.  The  children  were  made  free  of  the 
place,  with  the  needful  exception  of  the  dynamite 
stores,  which  were  strictly  forbidden  to  them. 
Probably  for  that  reason  this  was  the  only  part 
of  the  entire  village  for  which  they  seemed  to 
have  any  real  affection ;  and  they  were  con- 
stantly caught  hanging  round  the  rooms,  to  be 
dismissed  promptly  with  a  caution. 

They  had  not  been  seen  about  there  for  some 
time,  and  it  was  thought  that  they  had  forgotten 
the  subject,  when,  going  home  to  bed  early  one 
morning,  after  sitting  up  all  night  with  a  re- 
fractory furnace,  Jack  happened  to  notice  that 
the  outer  door  of  a  room  containing  giant  pow- 
der was  ajar.  Thinking  of  the  gross  careless- 
ness some  one  had  shown,  he  went  to  shut  it  up, 
when,  glancing  inside  to  assure  himself  that 
all  was  safe,  to  his  speechless  horror  he  saw  the 
whole  half-dozen  children  sitting  on  the  various 
cases  trying  to  see  which  could  make  a  match 
burn  longest.  There  was  enough  explosive 
substance  in  that  room  to  have  blown  up  the 
entire  town,  and  it  seemed  extremely  likely 
that  was  just  what  was  going  to  happen;  for 
it  passed  through  Jack's  mind  in  a  flash  that  if 
he  startled  the  children  at  all,  they  would  prob- 


A  Dynamite  Scare.  199 

ably  drop  their  matches  anywhere  and  run, 
when  the  result  was  pretty  certain.  They  were 
too  busy  to  have  caught  sight  of  him,  so  he 
moved  gently  a  little  way  from  the  door,  and 
then  called  to  them  softly.  Probably  his  voice 
was  a  little  shaken  by  what  the  novelists  call 
"  conflicting  emotions "  ;  for  at  first  the  chil- 
dren did  not  recognise  it,  but  at  the  second  or 
third  call  they  came  gingerly  out  of  the  room, 
fearful  lest  retribution  for  their  disobedience 
might  be  about  to  befall  them.  Directly  the 
last  child  —  carrying  a  still  burning  match  — 
crossed  the  threshold,  Jack  rushed  in  to  the 
store-room  just  in  time  to  extinguish  a  smoul- 
dering match-head  on  the  floor,  and  after  a 
searching  look  around  to  see  that  all  was  safe, 
he  went  out  again  and  locked  the  door  with  a 
gasp  of  relief.  Then  he  marched  those  chil- 
dren off  to  their  father,  with  whom,  judging 
from  the  sounds,  they  spent  an  exciting  half- 
hour.  Anyhow  they  concluded  that,  regarded 
as  an  amusement,  an  explosive  substance  was 
a  failure,  and  they  were  never  seen  near  that 
part  of  the  building  again. 

Of  course  not  one  of  the  natives  had  the 
slightest  idea  of  the  working  of  an  English 
household  ;   and  the  superintendent's  wife,  with 


200  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

whom  all  the  Englishmen  boarded,  found  at 
first  that  she  could  get  no  domestics  at  all, 
and  when  she  finally  succeeded  in  catching 
and  taming  a  few  young  Indians,  it  was  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  make  them  understand  that 
they  were  occasionally  expected  to  do  a  little 
work.  The  ordinary  Mexican  servant  is  often 
good-tempered  and  faithful  to  a  degree,  but 
loafing  is  his  profession,  and  he  does  not  see 
why  he  should  forsake  it  because  a  gringo  is 
grasping  enough  to  want  some  return  for  the 
wages  he  pays.  Then,  too,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
very  harsh  things  to  a  person  with  eyes  like 
those  of  a  sorrowful  Madonna,  and  whose  name 
may  be  Dolores  Velasquez  ! 

Altogether,  the  domestic  establishment  of  the 
Ingleses  was  run  on  peculiar  lines.  For  one 
thing,  the  cook  could  never  be  brought  to  dis- 
tinguish between  salad  and  lamp  oil ;  which 
idiosyncrasy  frequently  imparted  a  good  deal  of 
flavour  to  the  dishes, — when  there  were  any 
dishes,  for  sometimes  in  a  fit  of  generosity  she 
would  give  away  a  whole  day's  commissariat  to 
her  relations  overnight.  Then  the  housemaid 
was  a  source  of  much  tribulation  to  her  mis- 
tress. She  was  a  bloated  capitalist,  who,  on  the 
strength  of  having  saved  $20,  was  known  as  the 


Domestic  Difficulties.  201 

"  Heiress  of  the  Sierras,"  and  was  much  sought 
after  by  fortune-hunters.  She  was  rather  like  a 
Burmese  idol  in  the  face,  and  resembled  a  Thames 
waterman  in  the  figure,  so  her  wealth  must  have 
been  the  attraction.  Anyhow,  it  was  discovered 
that,  like  the  cats,  she  used  to  hold  levees  on  the 
roof,  after  every  one  else  had  retired ;  and  as 
she  could  not  be  brought  to  see  any  impro- 
priety in  the  proceeding,  her  further  services 
had  to  be  gently  but  firmly  declined. 

The  superintendent's  wife  soon  started  a  gar- 
den, which  entailed  the  employment  of  a  gar- 
dener, who  also  looked  after  the  pigs,  and  acted 
as  maid-of-all-work  to  the  bachelor  establish- 
ment in  Poverty  Row.  As  the  lady  did  all  the 
gardening  herself,  and  the  pigs  wandered  about 
the  town  at  their  own  sweet  will,  while  none  of 
the  rooms  in  Poverty  Row  contained  more  than 
a  carnp  bedstead,  a  table,  and  a  chair,  the  gar- 
dener might  have  struggled  through  his  duties 
without  seriously  endangering  his  health,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  quantity  of  water  which  the 
"  seflores  "  insisted  on  his  providing  them  with 
each  morning.  He  considered  that  washing  in  it 
was  a  wicked  waste  of  clean  fluid,  besides  entail- 
ing labour — a  thing  to  be  carefully  avoided, 
lie  himself  retired  to   a  secluded   part   of  the 


202  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

garden  once  a-month  in  company  with  a  damp 
lettuce-leaf,  with  which  he  sponged  himself  all 
over.  He  was  regarded,  therefore,  with  much 
awe  by  the  rest  of  the  villagers,  who  considered 
that  he  had  reached  the  highest  European  stand- 
ard of  cleanliness. 

After  a  time  the  mistress  of  the  establishment 
took  to  fattening  her  own  chickens  and  turkeys, 
and  when  she  had  got  one  of  the  latter  up  to 
the  requisite  degree  of  plumpness,  she  ordered 
him  to  be  killed  for  the  next  day's  dinner.  But 
when  his  presence  was  required  in  order  that 
his  neck  might  be  wrung,  he  was  discovered  to 
be  missing !  He  could  not  have  gone  away  by 
himself,  so  therefore  he  must  have  been  stolen, 
and  the  services  of  the  one  policeman  were 
called  in.  He  had  no  doubt  of  being  able  to 
find  the  missing  bird,  and  started  at  once  on  his 
search,  which  he  conducted  on  the  simple  prin- 
ciple of  walking  into  every  hut  in  the  town  until 
he  came  to  one  where  a  turkey  was  hanging  half 
roasted  over  the  fire.  The  ingenious  officer 
seized  it,  and  marching  off  to  his  employer, 
asked  if  she  recognised  her  fowl?  She  explained 
that  she  found  a  difficulty  in  doing  so,  as  the 
last  time  she  had  met  him  he  was  arrayed  in  all 
the  glory  of  feathers,  and  looked  rather  differ- 


An  Ingenious  Official.  203 

ent  from  the  denuded,  half-cooked  object  before 
her.  "  Never  mind,"  said  the  intelligent  native ; 
"  nobody  in  the  village  would  dream  of  killing  a 
turkey  of  his  own  on  anything  but  a  very  supe- 
rior saint's  day;"  so  leaving  the  defunct  bird 
with  the  cook,  he  returned  to  the  culprit,  whom 
he  marched  off  to  the  judge.  A  little  later, 
while  sitting  at  dinner,  the  entire  tableful  were 
convulsed  with  laughter  by  a  message  arriving 
from  the  judge  to  ask  what  the  senora  would 
like  him  to  do  to  the  thief  ?  If  she  had  replied 
"  Shoot  her !  "  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  sentence  would  not  have  been  carried  out ! 

It  will  be  gathered  from  these  instances  that 
life  was  conducted  on  primitive  lines  in  the 
Mexican  sierras ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  new 
settlers,  that  rather  added  to  than  detracted 
from  its  charm.  In  any  case,  the  climate  went 
a  long  way  towards  making  up  for  other  defi- 
ciencies. Always  cool  enough  up  in  the  moun- 
tains for  a  fire  of  pine-boughs  to  be  very  welcome 
in  the  evening,  winter  was  yet  unknown,  and 
day  followed  day  of  unclouded  skies  and  brilliant 
sunshine;  while  the  purple  shadows  on  the  dis- 
tant heights  looked  so  like  the  bloom  of  heather, 
that  little  imagination  was  needed  to  fancy  one's 
self  living  on  a  Scotch  moor  in  a  perpetual  June. 


204  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

Then,  too,  it  was  pleasant  to  feel  on  good 
terms  with  the  whole  community,  as,  with  one 
exception,  the  Englishmen  were.  Even  the  old 
Padre  had  come  round  by  now,  although  at  first 
he  preached  long  sermons  on  the  desirability  of 
turning  the  hereticos  out  of  the  place.  But  he 
was  a  person  of  much  perspicacity,  and  when  he 
found  that  regular  pay  meant  more  fees  for  him- 
self, he  gave  the  entire  village  leave  to  work  on 
all  but  the  very  highest  saints'  days.  Indeed  he 
impressed  upon  them  from  the  pulpit  that  there 
were  many  ordinary  saints  in  whose  honour  it 
was  not  at  all  necessary  that  they  should  take  a 
day's  holiday,  as  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
doing;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  much  better  for 
them  to  keep  on  working  for  him  and  for  their 
families — that  was  the  relative  order  in  which 
he  put  it.  With  all  the  odd  reals  and  pesetas 
that  he  could  squeeze  out  of  his  parishioners, 
his  reverence  was  by  no  means  wealthy,  and  as 
marriage  fees  were  higher  than  any  others,  and 
formed  his  principal  source  of  revenue,  he  pro- 
moted holy  matrimony  as  if  it  had  been  a  lim- 
ited liability  company.  Left  to  themselves,  the 
Indians  would  have  dispensed  with  it  as  a  super- 
fluous and  expensive  commodity;  but  their 
priest  kept  a  very  wide   open   eye  upon  them, 


Marriage  Fees.  205 

and  at  the  first  symptom  of  love-making,  took 
them  off  and  married  them  at  once. 

A  little  later  on,  this  padre  grew  tired  of  his 
mountain  cure,  and  resolved  on  going  to  the 
city  of  Mexico.  But  he  reflected  that  it  would 
be  a  pity  to  leave  any  more  money  than  he 
need,  to  be  gathered  in  by  his  successor.  So 
he  made  it  widely  known  that  before  going  he 
would  marry  any  one  who  wished  him  to  do  so 
for  the  low  sum  of  $10.  He  gathered  in  a  few 
devoted  couples  at  that  price;  but  as  soon  as 
no  more  were  forthcoming  he  dropped  his  fee 
to  $5,  with  a  pathetic  reminder  that  he  would 
soon  be  far  from  them,  and  unable  to  bind  them 
together  any  longer.  This  brought  in  several 
more  lovers  hovering  on  the  verge  of  matrimony, 
who  thought  the  offer  too  cheap  to  be  resisted. 
As  soon  as  the  holy  man  was  sure  that  there 
was  not  another  $5  in  the  entire  bachelor  com- 
munity, he  said  that  he  would  perform  the  cere- 
mony for  a  sheep,  then  for  a  pig,  and  so  on, 
down  to  a  fowl,  until  the  whole  country-side 
was  married,  and  he  departed  with  a  rich  har- 
vest, leaving  his  successor  to  groan"  over  the 
prospect  of  no  fees  coming  in  until  some  of  the 
children  grew  up  ! 

Of  course  all  Mexicans,  Indians  included,  are 


206  The  Land  of  Montezuma. 

devout   sons   of    the    Church  —  and    yet ! 

There  are  out-of-the-way  corners  of  the  sierras 
where  sometimes  stray  fragments  of  strange, 
wild  stories  can  be  heard  about  temples 
yet  devoted  to  Aztec  gods,  which  are  hidden 
away  in  mountain  fastnesses,  and  whose  where- 
abouts are  known  only  to  the  few  tribes  who, 
through  all  persecution  and  change,  have 
kept  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  Outwardly  de- 
voted to  the  religion  of  the  Spaniards,  in  secret 
they  do  homage  and  sacrifice  to  the  old,  old 
gods,  whose  day  is  over  and  whose  power  gone. 
There  may  be  a  little  truth  in  these  tales.  No 
man  knows  how  much.  Indian  races  can  keep 
their  secrets  well,  and  Mexico  is  a  country  where 
all  things  are  possible,  and  most  things  come  to 
pass. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A     BRUSH   WITH   BANDITTI. 

TREACHERY  IN  CAMP  —  THE  EX-MANAGER,  DON  EDCARDO, 
AND  HIS  SCHEME  OF  REVENGE  —  THE  GATHERING  OF  THE 
ENEMY  —  A  DISCONTENTED  PEON  —  SEBASTIANO  DRUNK 
AND  SEBASTIANO  SOBER  —  THE  PLOT  LEAKS  OUT PECU- 
LIAR   ARRANGEMENTS    FOB     DEFENCE  — A     SMART    CAPTURE 

AN     INSTANCE     OF    SUMMARY     JUSTICE  —  POWER    OF     THE 

DISTRICT  CACIQUE A  SUPPORTER  OF  THE  EMPEROR  MAX- 
IMILIAN—  AN  OLD  BATTLE-GROUND —  THE  CACIQUE'S  DE- 
SCRIPTION OF  THE  FIGHT  —  DEVOTION  OF  THE  TRIBESMEN 
TO  THEIR  CHIEF  —  THE  CLANNISH  FEELING  STILL  EXIS- 
TENT   IN    MEXICO. 

All  things  considered,  for  a  mining  camp  the 
picturesque  little  Indian  town  was  pleasant 
enough,  and  the  Englishmen  thought  themselves 
in  a  perfect  Garden  of  Eden,  compared  with 
other  places  they  had  known.  But,  like  the 
original  garden,  this  one  too  had  its  little  snake. 
In  the  present  case  the  serpent  took  the  shape 
of  a  former  Mexican  manager  of  the  rilines,  who, 
before  the  advent  of  the  English  company,  had 
been  a  person  of  much  importance,  able  to  cheat 
and  bully  the  peons  to  his  heart's  content,  with 


2o8  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

little  fear  of  being  called  to  account.  He  had 
tried  to  continue  this  process  under  the  new 
rule,  and  had  been  dismissed  in  consequence. 
Therefore  he  thirsted  for  the  blood  of  every 
foreigner  in  the  country,  but  especially  for  that 
of  the  superintendent  who  filled  his  post.  He 
had  contrived  to  annoy  the  entire  staff  in  various 
little  ways  ever  since  his  dismissal,  but  he  did 
nothing  overt  until  about  a  year  from  the  time 
that  they  first  arrived  in  the  town.  At  this 
period  some  alterations  seemed  to  be  necessary 
in  the  original  form  of  the  company,  and  Jack 
had  to  journey  to  England  in  order  to  arrange 
the  matter  satisfactorily ;  leaving  the  English 
superintendent,  together  with  the  cashier  and 
assayer,  in  charge,  during  his  absence. 

The  ex-manager,  Don  Eduardo,  thought  that 
with  only  three  of  the  hated  gringoes  on  the 
spot,  the  time  had  arrived  for  him  to  carry  out 
a  little  scheme  of  revenge  which  had  been  in  his 
mind  for  a  long  while.  During  his  management 
he  had  been  accustomed  to  pay  the  peons  60  per 
cent  of  their  wages  in  spoilt  beans  and  maize, 
and  only  40  per  cent  in  cash.  Therefore  when 
the  new  company  paid  them  entirely  in  coin,  the 
natives  thought  at  first  that  it  would  not  last, 
but  finding  that  the  pay-rolls  continued  to  be 


Don  Eduardos  Scheme.  209 

met  every  week,  they  came  to  the  conclusion  — 
helped  thereto  by  Don  Ecluardo — that  the  for- 
eigners must  be  enormously  wealthy,  and  that 
the  office  was  crammed  with  silver  dollars.  A 
little  judicious  talking  quickly  spread  this  rumour 
through  the  sierras,  whence  it  soon  percolated 
down  into  the  plains,  where  —  as  any  hillman 
will  tell  you  —  the  people  are  all  ladrones,  or,  to 
speak  plainly,  thieves.  So  it  came  to  pass  be- 
fore long  that  a  good  many  shady  characters 
found  their  way  up  into  the  mountains,  in  the 
hope  of  being  able  to  appropriate  to  themselves 
some  of  the  riches  which  were  now  wickedly 
wasted  on  Jicrcticos.  Don  Eduardo  knew  a  ban- 
dit or  two  himself,  and  was  careful  to  drop  them 
a  hint  that  there  might  be  plunder  shortly; 
whereupon  several  of  his  friends  decided  that 
change  of  air  would  be  beneficial  to  them,  and 
made  their  way  to  the  sierra  accordingly.  They 
dropped  in  to  the  mining  camp  casually,  one  at 
a  time,  in  order  not  to  create  suspicion,  explain- 
ing to  all  whom  it  might  concern  that  they  were 
in  search  of  employment.     So  they  were  ! 

Now,  working  in  the  mines  was  a  peon  named 
Sebastiano,  who,  having  been  set  to  do  some- 
thing he  did  not  like,  struck  work  after  the  most 
approved  European  fashion.     In  order  to  con- 
14 


210  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

tinue  the  resemblance  between  an  angry  Aztec 
and  a  discontented  docker,  he  also  got  drunk, 
and  went  about  abusing  his  employers  roundly. 
One  of  the  loafers  in  the  town  overhearing  his 
tirades,  took  him  aside,  saying  that,  as  he  evi- 
dently hated  the  foreigners,  he  had  better  go  to 
the  house  of  Don  Eduardo,  where  he  would  find 
others  of  the  same  way  of  thinking.  Sebastiano 
was  charmed  at  the  prospect  of  sympathy  with 
his  wrongs,  and  immediately  repaired  to  the 
house,  where  he  met  a  miscellaneous  assemblage 
of  men,  only  two  of  whom,  however,  were  fellow- 
townsmen.  After  his  tale  of  woe  had  been  list- 
ened to,  he  was  sworn  to  secrecy,  and  then  told 
that  it  only  required  a  little  courage  on  the  part 
of  a  few  brave  men  like  himself  to  secure  two 
things  to  be  devoutly  wished  for,  — first  the  loot- 
ing of  the  office,  and  then  the  annihilation  of  the 
hereticos,  who  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  live, 
anyhow.  It  further  transpired  that  as  the  towns- 
people were  weak  enough  to  tolerate  and  even  to 
like  the  strangers,  about  forty  outsiders  were  to 
be  engaged  in  this  excellent  work.  Of  course 
the  Englishmen,  and  perhaps  their  servants, 
would  fight;  but  with  so  many  men  all  armed 
with  knives  and  revolvers,  there  was  no  doubt 
whatever  as  to  the  issue  of  the  affair.     Now  that 


Sebastiano  Sober.  2 1 1 

one  of  their  enemies  had  started  for  the  doubtless 
pestilent  country  to  which  he  belonged,  the 
sooner  the  blow  was  struck  the  better,  and  they 
need  only  wait  for  the  a'rrival  of  a  few  of  their 
comrades,  who  had  not  yet  put  in  an  appearance, 
but  would  be  on  the  spot  within  a  fortnight. 

Now,  like  a  certain  Philip,  Sebastiano  drunk 
and  Sebastiano  sober  were  two  perfectly  differ- 
ent peons.  So  when  he  awoke  in  the  morning, 
having  slept  off  the  fumes  of  the  mescal  imbibed 
overnight,  Sebastiano  was  a  very  frightened 
Aztec  indeed.  He  didn't  half  like  the  conspir- 
acy into  which  he  had  been  drawn,  especially 
as  he  remembered  that  his  uncle,  who  was 
captain  of  the  mine,  lived  near  the  English  quar- 
ters, and  would  most  assuredly  be  in  the  fray. 
Probably  he  would  be  killed  ;  but  if  he  lived  to 
inquire  into  the  matter,  then  would  Sebastiano 
certainly  soon  cease  to  ornament  the  earth. 
This  reflection  decided  any  wavering  he  might 
have  experienced,  and  he  forthwith  told  his 
uncle  all  that  he  had  heard.  The  uncle,  Don 
Carlos,  took  counsel  with  the  head  men  of  the 
town,  and  partly  from  the  joy  of  possessing  a 
secret,  and  the  still  greater  joy  (to  a  Mexican) 
of  postponing  the  telling  of  it,  and  also  for 
reasons  which  will  appear,  they  all    agreed  to 


212  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

keep  the  Englishmen  in  complete  ignorance  of 
what  was  taking  place.  Meanwhile,  Sebastiano 
was  to  go  on  conspiring  and  —  reporting. 

When,  in  a  few  days,  he  was  able  to  tell  them 
that  the  last  bandit  had  arrived,  and  that  the 
attack  was  fixed  for  an  hour  before  daybreak 
the  next  night,  the  party  decided  that  it  could 
scarcely  be  called  premature  if  they  acquainted 
their  employers  with  the  peril  in  which  they 
stood.  So  a  little  after  dark,  three  head  men 
dropped  casually  into  the  superintendent's  office, 
and  mentioned  that  it  would  be  attacked  about  2 
A.M.  Also  that  there  had  been  a  lot  of  stran- 
gers in  the  town  for  the  last  three  weeks  who  had 
arranged  for  the  Englishmen's  murder  to  take 
place  at  the  same  hour !  Surprise  naturally 
kept  their  astounded  listeners  silent  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  an  awful  moment  it  must  have  been 
for  the  man  whose  wife  and  children  would  have 
to  share  whatever  danger  menaced  him.  Dur- 
ing the  pause  Don  Carlos  proceeded  to  explain 
that  all  the  reliable  men  had  been  armed  with 
machetes,  and  would  rush  to  the  defence  of  the 
office  at  the  sound  of  the  first  shot,  as,  if  they 
attempted  to  sleep  there,  it  would  be  found  out 
that  an  alarm  had  been  given,  and  the  attack 
would  be  put  off.     Don  Eduardo  was  of  course 


The  La  drones'  Plans.  213 

the  moving  spirit,  and  Don  Carlos  added  that 
if  it  would  not  inconvenience  the  Senores,  he 
should  like  to  have  the  shooting  of  the  ex- 
manager  himself! 

"  Oh  !  by  all  means,"  replied  the  superinten- 
dent; "but  if  you  have  known  of  this  precious 
plot  for  the  last  month,  why  the  devil  didn't 
you  warn  us  sooner?" 

"  Senor,"  said  Don  Carlos,  "  we  thought  that 
as  you  were  always  so  busy  it  might  annoy  you, 
and  besides,  would  be  sure  to  frighten  the 
Sefiora.  You  see,  we  knew  all  the  ladroius 
plans,  and  in  order  to  be  quite  safe,  we  have 
had  armed  men  sleeping  in  your  garden  every 
night." 

"  I'll  send  a  runner  to  the  Cacique  to  ask  for 
troops,"  exclaimed  the  superintendent.  "  Thanks 
to  your  delay  in  telling  me  this,  they'll  probably 
arrive  in  time  to  bury  our  remains.  Still,  it  is 
our  only  chance." 

"  Senor,"  was  the  reply,  "  the  troops  are  by 
now  on  the  road.  The  fastest  runner  in  the 
sierra  started  at  noon.  He  will  have  reached 
the  general  an  hour  ago,  and  the- soldiers  will 
certainly  be  here  in  time." 

"  Well,  you  have  shown  some  common-sense 
at  last,"  said  the  superintendent;   "but,  for  the 


214  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

life  of  me,  I  cannot  understand  why  you  have 
run  it  so  fearfully  close." 

"  Don't  you  see,"  he  was  told,  "  that  at  head- 
quarters, down  in  the  hot  country,  Don  Eduardo 
has  many  friends ;  and  if  we  had  sent  for  the 
troops  sooner,  rumours  would  certainly  have 
reached  him  in  time  to  cause  him  to  change  his 
plans,  or  even  to  get  away  altogether  —  and  so  !  " 

Light  began  to  dawn  upon  the  startled  Eng- 
lishmen. They  had  been  used  as  a  bait  to 
catch  Don  Eduardo  in  his  own  trap,  which, 
though  an  excellent  plan,  regarded  as  a  piece 
of  strategy,  might  prove  to  be  unpleasant  for 
the  bait.  It  was  evident  that  the  Mexicans  saw 
their  way  to  paying  off  plenty  of  old  scores 
during  the  night,  and  were  simply  "  spoiling  for 
a  fight  "  ;  while,  should  they  get  the  worst  of  it, 
there  would  be  the  troops  to  fall  back  upon. 
Of  course  the  opposition  were  better  armed 
than  they;  but  then  they  could  raise  double 
the  number  of  men  for  a  scrimmage  if  need  be, 
and  besides,  in  the  dark  a  machete  is  a  rather 
more  dangerous  weapon  than  a  revolver. 

As  these  reflections  occurred  to  the  three 
recipients  of  the  news,  they  began  to  feel  a  little 
easier  than  when  it  was  first  sprung  upon  them, 
and  they  said  good-night  to  their  visitors  with 


Preparing  for  Defence.  2 1 5 

some  hope  that,  when  they  met  again  in  the 
small  hours,  it  might  still  be  with  whole  skins. 

After  some  discussion  among  themselves, 
they  decided  to  take  books,  papers,  and  what 
little  cash  really  existed,  over  from  the  office  to 
the  house,  where  they  would  all  sit  up  and  await 
events.  This  was  accordingly  done ;  but  while 
the  superintendent's  wife  was  still  about,  not  a 
word  of  the  threatened  danger  was  said. 
Directly,  however,  she  had  retired,  windows 
and  shutters  were  carefully  examined,  and  the 
lower  part  of  the  house  was  put  into  as  good  a 
state  of  defence  as  might  be.  Hour  after  hour 
passed  slowly  by,  the  silence  broken  only  by 
the  crowing  of  the  innumerable  cocks,  or  the 
barking  of  the  multitudinous  curs  which  infest 
every  Mexican  village.  Twelve  o'clock  tolled 
from  the  distant  belfry,  then  one  —  the  watchers 
growing  ever  more  watchful.  The  moon  was 
sinking  low,  but  they  could  see  clearly  down 
the  village,  where  all  was  quiet  as  death.  Then 
two  o'clock  boomed  out,  and  the  excitement 
grew  intense,  for  the  attack  was  fixed  for  half- 
past,  and  surely  the  troops  must  b-e  near  by 
now  ! 

Presently,  as  the  three  men  gazed,  they 
thought   that    they  could   distinguish    three    or 


216  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

four  points  of  light  on  the  road,  where  it  dipped 
into  the  valley.  In  a  moment  more  a  dozen 
appeared.  It  was  the  welcome  sight  of  bayo- 
nets and  rifle-barrels  glistening  in  the  moon- 
light. The  soldiers  were  in  time.  A  few 
seconds,  and  they  could  be  seen  filling  the 
arroya  below  Don  Eduardo's  house;  then  came 
a  shower  of  heavy  blows,  and  a  crash,  as  one 
by  one  doors  were  forced  in,  and  the  waiting 
ruffians  behind  them  dragged  out  to  take  a 
different  part  in  the  surprise  from  that  which 
they  had  planned.  Not  a  shot  was  fired,  and 
very  soon  all  was  quiet  again ;  but  in  the  grey 
dawn  an  indistinct  crowd  of  men  might  be  seen 
a  mile  away  on  the  road  to  the  plains,  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  the  glittering  bayonets 
of  the  Federal  troops !  Except  for  the  few 
peons  who,  rising  from  among  the  cabbages 
and  rose-bushes  in  the  garden,  yawned  wearily, 
and  pulling  their  red  blankets  closely  round 
them,  slipped  off  to  their  huts,  with  a  "  bucnos 
dias "  to  the  three  Englishmen,  it  seemed  to 
the  latter  as  if  the  whole  thing  must  have  been 
a  dream,  so  quickly  was  it  all  over,  and  the 
village  settled  down  to  its  slumbers  again !  Of 
course  they  heartily  congratulated  themselves 
on  the  capture  of  their  enemies  and  the  prompt 


No  Lawyers.  217 

settlement  of  the  whole  affair.  But  Don  Carlos 
took  a  different  view  of  the  matter,  as  he  ex- 
plained when  he  called  at  the  office  later  in  the 
day.  In  the  first  place,  Don  Eduardo  had  seen 
the  soldiers  coming  in  time  to  get  into  bed  and 
pretend  to  be  asleep,  whereby  he  would  prob- 
ably be  able  to  prove  an  alibi  ;  then  those  who 
were  captured  had  been  taken  to  the  plains, 
where  they  would  secure  lawyers  who  might 
get  them  off.  Lawyers  had  been  known  to  do 
equally  outrageous  things,  and  Don  Carlos 
crossed  himself  as  he  spoke  of  them.  But  he 
brightened  up  when  he  mentioned  that  some 
of  the  bandits  had  escaped,  and  would  make 
for  a  certain  point  in  the  sierras  where,  thanks 
to  the  Virgin,  there  were  no  lawyers,  and  he 
had  already  sent  a  runner  to  arrange  for  their 
reception  —  and  despatch  —  at  the  hands  of 
the  chief  of  the  district ! 

Three  months  later,  on  Jack's  return,  he  was 
riding  across  a  mescal-covered  plain,  accom- 
panied by  an  escort  of  troopers,  when  he 
noticed  a  fresh  little  hillock,  and  asked  the 
man  nearest  to  him  what  it  was.  -Nothing  of 
consequence,  he  was  told ;  it  only  contained  a 
few  of  the  men  who  had  escaped  the  soldiers 
on   the    night   of  the    expected   attack    on   the 


218  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

foreigners  !  Two  had  been  got  near  a  pueblita 
close  by,  and  three  more  down  an  arroya  at  a 
little  distance. 

On  reaching  the  camp  Jack  heard  that  most 
of  the  others  had  been  sent  to  Yucatan,  but 
that  the  head  and  front  of  the  whole  plot,  Don 
Eduardo,  had  been  acquitted  in  consequence  of 
his  father  being  a  compadre  of  the  colonel  of  the 
regiment.  But  the  Cacique  had  told  him  that 
if  he  gave  any  further  trouble  he  would  be 
shot  at  once ;  and  as  there  was  not  a  man  in 
the  country  but  knew  that  the  "  Tiger  of  the 
sierras  "  kept  his  word  in  such  little  details,  the 
English  community  felt  quite  safe  from  further 
molestation. 

This  Cacique,  who  was  also  General  of  the 
army  and  Governor  of  the  State,  and  in  all 
three  capacities  exercised  rather  more  power 
than  the  Czar,  shared  Don  Carlos'  dislike  to 
lawyers,  none  of  whom  would  he  allow  within 
his  jurisdiction.  A  little  prior  to  this  date, 
three  men  had  done  something  —  I  forget  what, 
but  something  sufficiently  bad  to  induce  the 
General  to  send  a  party  of  troops  in  pursuit, 
who,  after  a  very  long  and  hot  chase,  came  up 
with  them  eventually,  down  on  the  plains.  The 
three  malefactors  proved   to  be  well-connected 


The  Feudal  Lord.  219 

men,  who  managed  to  communicate  with  their 
friends.  These  procured  an  order  delivering 
them  over  to  the  civil  powers,  and  to  their 
extreme  disgust  the  troopers  had  to  give  up 
their  hardly-earned  prey.  Their  indignation 
was  great,  but  it  was  nothing  to  the  rage  of 
the  General  when  he  afterwards  heard  that  the 
criminals  had  employed  a  clever  lawyer  who 
had  got  them  off. 

"Got  them  off!"  he  exclaimed,  purple  with 
wrath ;  "  and  my  men  spent  a  hard  week  track- 
ing them  down.  All  wasted  work !  But  it 
shall  not  happen  twice  !  No  lawyers  shall  talk, 
talk  me  out  of  my  prisoners  again !  The  men 
shall  have  instructions  always  to  shoot  at 
sight !  " 

And  they  had ! 

Both  for  business  and  for  pleasure,  Jack  often 
took  the  thirty-mile  ride  down  into  the  hot 
country,  where  the  cast-iron  old  chieftain  lived 
on  his  hacienda  in  the  midst  of  his  vassals,  dis- 
pensing open-handed  hospitality  and  rough  jus- 
tice to  all  the  countryside,  like  a  feudal  lord  in 
the  middle  ages.  Long  and  interesting" were  the 
conversations  that  took  place  round  his  eccen- 
tric board,  where  the  soup  was  frequently  served 
in  delicate  Sevres  teacups,  and  the  kid,  roasted 


220  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

whole  in  honour  of  the  visitor,  was  eaten  with 
black-handled  Birmingham  knives,  but  with  forks 
hammered  out  of  blocks  of  solid  silver !  The 
General  had  been  a  strong  Imperialist  in  Maxi- 
milian's time,  and  had  done  his  best  to  save  the 
gentle,  kindly,  deceived,  and  betrayed  Emperor 
from  his  fate.  He  was  preparing  for  a  feint  on 
Queretaro,  when  the  Republicans  got  wind  of  his 
intentions  and  sent  5000  regular  troops  against 
the  General  and  his  handful  of  clansmen,  who, 
after  five  days'  and  nights'  incessant  fighting  high 
up  on  the  pine-crowned  precipices  of  the  sierra, 
were  too  utterly  exhausted  and  reduced  in  num- 
ber to  commence  a  campaign.  But  they  were 
victorious  over  regulars  who  numbered  ten  to 
one  against  them ;  besides,  they  so  harried  the 
retreat  of  their  assailants  that  only  2000  ever 
reached  the  plains  again,  out  of  the  5000  who  a 
month  before  had  started  confidently  for  the 
sierra. 

Jack  rode  one  night  with  the  Cacique  over  the 
battle-ground  of  twenty  years  before,  where  the 
latter  had  fought  and  struggled  over  those  nar- 
row ridges,  with  friends  and  clansmen  falling  fast 
around  him.  But  the  enemy  fell  still  faster 
below,  as  they  crawled  and  scrambled  up  the 
inaccessible  gullies,   striving  to  win    the   ridge, 


Holding  the  Sierras.  221 

only  to  find  that  when  won,  there  was  a  still 
higher  and  steeper  crest  beyond,  also  lined  with 
glittering  arms,  as  tireless  and  deadly  beneath 
the  cold  bright  moon  as  through  the  long  hot 
day.  The  General  began  to  tell  his  eager  listener 
the  story  of  that  desperate  fight,  and  it  is  best 
repeated  in  his  own  words. 

"  This  is  the  place,"  he  said.  "We  lined  this 
ridge  nearly  all  the  second  day,  and  I  had  my 
men  strung  out  for  half-a-mile,  although  there 
were  less  than  600  of  us  !  But  we  were  all  well 
armed,  and  knew  how  to  shoot  straight;  besides, 
we  had  fair  cover,  while  our  enemies  had  next  to 
none.  Still  they  were  brave  men,  and  came  up 
time  after  time,  though  we  shot  them  down  in 
crowds.  They  made  their  best  charge  up  that 
atroya  you  see  to  the  right.  They  massed  1000 
men  there,  and  I  saw  it  was  impossible  for  us  to 
hold  the  ridge  longer,  especially  as  they  were 
flanking  us  besides  ;  so  I  let  them  come  to  within 
fifty  yards.  All  were  '  men  of  the  plains,'  and  it 
took  them  a  long  time  to  climb  our  sierras;  so 
at  fifty  yards  I  gave  them  another  volley,  and 
then  every  man  of  us  rushed  down  "the  other 
side  of  the  hill  and  scaled  the  ridge  behind,  so 
that  when  they  reached  our  former  position,  we 
were  all  safe  at  the  top  of  the  next  hill,  and  our 


222  A  Brush  with  Banditti. 

enemies  had  another  stiff  climb  before  them  !  I 
left  a  third  of  my  men  there  to  hold  the  ground 
and  to  skirmish,  while  with  the  rest  I  marched 
nearly  all  night.  Before  morning  we  got  round 
behind  the  troops,  to  the  crest  of  the  hill  they 
had  driven  us  in  from  the  preceding  day,  so  that 
they  had  to  face  about  and  do  their  work  all  over 
again.  We  also  captured  some  baggage  and 
ammunition.  It  was  pretty  hard  work,  though, 
for  we  never  got  any  sleep,  and  no  food  either, 
except  a  few  tortillas  the  women  managed  to 
bring  us  from  time  to  time.  Well,  it's  long  over 
now ;  and  down  there  in  the  glade  they  say  that 
more  than  400  of  them  are  lying !  But,  quien 
sabe,  there  was  no  time  to  bury  the  dead  in  those 
days ! " 

How  devoted  his  tribesmen  were  to  him, 
probably  the  General  himself  scarcely  realised. 
A  few  days  after  listening  to  the  foregoing 
story,  Jack,  who  was  very  much  interested  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  revolution,  was  talking 
to  one  of  the  peons,  and  asking  if  he  too  had 
been  in  the  war.  The  man  replied  in  the  affir- 
mative, and  Jack  then  inquired  if  he  had  served 
with  Maximilian  or  with  the  Liberals. 

"Maximilian!"  said  the  man;  "I  seem  to 
remember  the   name,   and   I   think  he  was  on 


Clannish  Feeling  in  Mexico.  223 

the  same  side  that  I  was,  but  /was  fighting  for 

General !" 

He  had  never  troubled  even  to  ask  what  the 
war  was  about!  His  Cacique  told  him  to  fight, 
and  he  had  done  his  best  unquestioningly.  It 
seemed  like  a  dream  to  Jack  to  find  still  exist- 
ing in  the  heart  of  Mexico  the  old  clannish 
feeling  which  in  long-past  generations  enabled 
the  squire  of  every  English  village  to  march  to 
battle  followed  by  the  men  who  had  grown  up 
beside  him,  and  were  willing  to  die  for  and  with 
their  master  and  friend. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MEXICAN   HISTORY  AND    LEGEND. 

THE      EMPEROR      MAXIMILIAN     AND      HIS      FATE  —  HIS      FALSE 

COUNSELLORS HIS      CHIVALROUS      COURAGE — THE      SIEGE 

OF    QUERETARO PRESIDENT    JUAREZ GENERAL    DIAZ  — 

A    CASE    OF    DIAMOND    CUT    DIAMOND THE     STRANGE    MIX- 
TURE   OF    ABSOLUTE    FREEDOM     AND     MILITARY     DESPOTISM 

IN     MEXICO PROGRESS     OF    AFFAIRS    AT    THE      MINES  —  A 

BREAKDOWN     OF     MACHINERY  —  DIVIDENDS    STILL    IN    THE 

DISTANCE  —  HEROISM      OF      AN      INDIAN     LAD A    MEXICAN 

SUPERSTITION THE      LEGEND     OF     DON      ISIDORO      DE      LA 

VEGA  —  HIS     HATRED    OF     THE     SPANIARDS DON    MIGUEL 

GOMEZ  —  DON     ISIDORO'S     VENGEANCE SENT    A    PRISONER 

TO    THE    MINES HIS    PUNISHMENT A    WILD    TRAGEDY. 

THE  subject  of  Maximilian's  martyrdom  is  full 
of  pathetic  interest,  and  it  seems  impossible  to 
leave  it  without  a  few  words  about  the  lonely- 
figure  on  the  Cerro  Del  Campana,  which  for  a 
short  space  held  the  world  breathless  with  pity 
and  suspense.  Even  his  bitterest  foes  allowed 
that  the  Emperor  was  an  honest  man,  and  one 
who  strove  anxiously  for  what  he  believed  to  be 
the  good  of  his  adopted  country,  —  a  man  whose 
brain  was  filled  with  schemes  for  the  improve- 
ment and   development  of  Mexico,  but  whose 


The  Siege  of  Queretaro.  225 

hands  were  not  strong  enough  for  the  work. 
Mis  cause  became  hopeless  from  the  moment 
that  Napoleon  III.  accepted  the  ultimatum  of 
the  United  States  and  withdrew  the  French 
army  of  occupation.  Had  Maximilian  been 
wise,  he  would  then  and  there  have  given  up 
the  useless  contest;  but  he  was  surrounded  by 
men  whose  interest  it  was  to  keep  him  in  a  fool's 
paradise.  He  was  made  to  believe  that  the  bulk 
of  the  country  was  with  him,  and  he  was  told 
that  the  patriot  bands  who,  under  Juarez,  Diaz, 
and  others,  had  never  ceased  to  resent  the 
French  occupation  of  their  capital,  were  no 
better  than  herds  of  marauders,  as  much  the 
enemies  of  Mexico  as  the  bandits  who  had  long 
been  its  curse.  Later,  when  the  stern  logic  of 
war  had  proved  the  vanity  of  his  hopes,  and  he 
had  suffered  the  pang  of  seeing  many  of  his 
traitorous  advisers  desert  to  the  enemy,  he  was 
too  proud  and  chivalrous  to  fly.  Again  and 
again,  under  all  temptation,  he  refused  to  aban- 
don the  few  who  still  stood  by  him,  and  whose 
danger  increased  as   his  star  waned. 

It   is   now  well   known    that    he   might    have 

escaped    at    almost    any    period    of    the    three 

months    during   which   he   was    beleaguered    in 

Queretaro.     All   preparations   were   made,   and 

J5 


226  Mexican  History  and  Legend, 

the  step  was  urged  upon  him  by  his  closest 
friends ;  but,  like  the  true  gentleman  he  was, 
he  chose  to  stay  with  the  little  army  that  still 
fought  for  him,  though  he  knew  by  then  what 
his  choice  implied.  Although  both  besiegers 
and  besieged  fought  magnificently  at  Queretaro, 
it  is  more  than  doubtful  if  the  former  would  not 
have  shared  the  joy  of  the  latter  had  the  Em- 
peror escaped.  The  President  and  his  Cabinet 
had  no  desire  to  cover  themselves  with  the 
odium  that  the  execution  of  Maximilian  would 
undoubtedly  cast  upon  them  ;  while  at  the  same 
time  it  was  felt  that  should  he  be  captured,  an 
example  must  be  made  which  should  for  ever 
deter  any  other  prince  from  attempting  to  play 
the  role  of  Emperor  of  Mexico.  It  is  equally 
certain,  though  less  well  known,  that  in  the 
Presidential  army  there  were  many  who,  al- 
though they  fought  well,  were  still  anxious  not 
to  take  Queretaro.  Of  the  35,000  men  who 
besieged  the  city,  a  large  proportion  were  very 
irregular  troops  indeed. 

Bands  of  guerillas,  enlisted  bandits,  the  scour- 
ings  of  many  a  jail,  were  to  be  found  in  the 
ranks;  and  to  these  men  the  fall  of  Queretaro 
meant  the  end  of  the  war,  and  the  loss  of  free 
rations,  together  with  all  chance  of  legitimate 


Juarez  and  Diaz.  227 

and  illegitimate  loot.  Altogether,  there  were 
plenty  of  people,  from  those  highest  in  authority 
to  the  lowest  privates  in  the  army,  who  would 
have  been  delighted  had  Maximilian  broken 
through  Escobedo's  lines  and  reached  the  coast 
in  safety,  as  he  might  easily  have  done.  Twelve 
hours'  ride  would  have  placed  him  beyond  pur- 
suit among  the  clansmen  of  his  devoted  follower, 
General  Mejia,  where  he  might  have  held  out 
for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  or  have  pro- 
ceeded at  his  leisure  to  the  coast. 

But  it  was  not  to  be.  The  empire  was 
quenched  in  blood,  and  the  subtle,  iron-willed 
Juarez  firmly  seated  in  the  Presidential  chair. 
Few  men  who  knew  him  would  have  cared  to 
match  themselves  against  the  President  in  wit 
or  finesse,  for  with  all  the  wiliness,  and  perhaps 
cruelty,  of  the  old  Aztec  stock,  he  combined 
immense  ability  and  resource ;  while  from  the 
days  when,  as  a  ragged  boy  in  the  streets  of 
Puebla,  he  gained  a  precarious  living  by  peddling 
oranges,  until  he  had  attained  the  summit  of  his 
ambition  as  ruler  of  the  country,  he  was  never 
known  to  trust  any  man,  or  to  take  counsel  with 
any  but  himself. 

The  present  President  — then  merely  General 
Diaz  —  is  probably  the  only  man  alive  who  can 


228  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

boast  of  having  beaten  Juarez  with  his  own 
weapons ;  and  the  story  is  worth  telling,  as  illus- 
trating Mexican  methods  of  those  days,  although, 
of  course,  it  is  a  digression  from  the  subject  of 
these  sketches.  Still,  it  shall  be  given  as  it  was 
told  to  Jack  Jebb. 

Among  the  prisoners,  after  the  fall  of  Quere- 
taro,  were  two  young  hacienderos  of  good  family, 
who  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  defence. 
As  they  were  both  wealthy,  and  of  great  local 
importance,  Juarez  thought  they  would  be  just 
the  right  men  to  make  an  example  of;  so  they 
were  tried  by  court-martial,  and  condemned  to 
be  shot. 

The  most  urgent  appeals  were  made  to  the 
Dictator  on  their  behalf;  bribery  of  high  officials 
was  tried  in  vain ;  every  influence  that  could  be 
secured  was  brought  to  bear,  without  the  slight- 
est effect.  Juarez  was  inflexible.  As  a  forlorn- 
hope  the  family  appealed  to  General  Diaz, 
begging  him  to  ask  the  President  to  give  him 
the  lives  of  the  two  prisoners,  in  consideration 
of  his  own  great  services  —  for  he  was  then  fresh 
from  the  storming  of  Puebla,  and  the  most  pop- 
ular man  in  the  country.  He  was  also  the  head 
of  a  strong  party,  and  in  every  way  a  power  to 
be  reckoned  with.    So,  when  he  consented  to  do 


Diamond  Cut  Diamond.  229 

his  best,  and  called  upon  Juarez,  with  a  ready- 
made-out  pardon  in  his  pocket,  the  latter  after 
much  hesitation,  consented  to  sign  it.  But  — 
the  instant  Diaz  left  the  palace  Juarez  sent  off 
a  courier,  with  orders  to  General  Escobedo  to 
hasten  the  execution,  and  have  the  prisoners 
safely  shot  before  the  pardon  could  arrive ; 
thereby,  as  he  thought,  securing  his  revenge, 
and  at  the  same  time  obliging  his  ally!  His 
anger  and  surprise  may  therefore  be  imagined 
when,  four  days  later,  General  Diaz  presented 
himself  at  the  palace  accompanied  by  two  travel- 
stained  young  men,  who  had  ridden  day  and 
night  to  thank  him  for  the  lives  he  had  saved, 
and  to  make  their  acknowledgments  to  the  Presi- 
dent. In  his  astonishment,  Juarez  blurted  out 
the  fact  that  he  had  expected  the  execution  to 
be  over  before  the  arrival  of  the  pardon. 

"Ah,  your  Excellency,"  said  Diaz,  "  I  believe 
yonr  messenger  did  not  start  until  2  P.M.,  while  / 
had  a  mounted  orderly  waiting  in  the  courtyard 
until  you  had  signed  the  pardon.  He  was  on 
his  way  to  Queretaro  with  it  five  minutes  after- 
wards, and  as  he  had  relays  of  horses  posted 
along  the  entire  route,  I  think  that  will  account 
for  the  little  mistake  !  I  really  ought  to  apologise 
to  your  Excellency  for  being  in  such  a  hurry  !  " 
he  wound  up,  with  a  smile. 


230  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

The  President  looked  him  straight  in  the  eyes 
with  the  genial  expression  of  a  dog  whose  bone 
has  just  been  snatched  from  him,  as  he  said, 
"  Yes,  you  have  been  too  quick  for  me  this  time, 
but  I  should  advise  those  friends  of  yours  to  go 
straight  home,  and  to  leave  politics  alone  in 
future." 

To  those  who  have  lived  in  the  land  of 
Montezuma,  the  strange  mixture  of  absolute 
freedom  and  military  despotism  which  still 
forms  her  government,  and  the  even  more  sin- 
gular mingling  of  cunning  and  simplicity  in  her 
people,  are  subjects  of  which  it  is  difficult  to 
tire ;  but  I  will  have  mercy,  and  will  return 
forthwith  to  the  tale  of  Mr  Jebb's  adventures. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  were  not  numerous 
at  this  period  of  his  career.  There  was  little  to 
break  the  monotony  of  life  in  the  mountains  — 
to  the  joy  of  the  dwellers  therein,  for  such  events 
as  did  occur  were  usually  of  an  unpleasant 
nature:  accidents  in  the  mines,  for  instance,  or  a 
break-down  of  the  machinery.  The  latter  once 
collapsed  so  effectually,  that  a  fresh  smelting 
apparatus  had  to  be  procured  from  the  United 
States.  The  order  was  sent  accompanied  by  a 
stipulation  that  the  separate  pieces  must  be 
small  enough  to  admit  of  their  being  dragged 


Fresh  Difficulties.  231 

up  a  precipitous  ascent  by  mules.  When  Jack 
received  notice  of  the  arrival  of  the  machinery 
at  the  foot  of  the  sierra,  thirty  miles  from  the 
mines,  he  rode  down  to  look  at  it,  and  to  ar- 
range for  its  removal.  To  his  consternation  he 
found  that  his  instructions  had  been  disregarded, 
and  that  each  piece  weighed  a  ton  or  more.  As 
there  was  only  space  for  two  mules  abreast  on 
the  narrow  trail  up  the  mountains,  and  as  har- 
nessing them  tandem  would  probably  result  in 
the  amiable  animals  kicking  each  other  over  the 
precipices,  the  situation  was  decidedly  embar- 
rassing. The  latter  course  had  to  be  tried, 
however,  and  the  result  was  half  a  mile's  prog- 
ress in  twelve  hours !  The  mules,  with  the 
"  infinite  variety  "  which  distinguishes  their 
character,  had  turned  sulky  instead  of  restive ; 
and  even  that  half  mile  was  won  only  by  a  con- 
stant attention  to  business  on  the  part  of  the 
drivers. 

Jack  felt  a  little  discouraged,  but  hoped  for 
better  things  next  day.  Quite  in  vain,  as  events 
proved,  for  every  mule  in  the  countryside  seemed 
to  have  struck  work,  and  it  took  just  one  month 
to  get  that  machinery  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  ! 
The  entire  staff  kept  riding  backwards  and  for- 
wards to  look  on  and  to  help,  and  although  they 


232  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

admitted  that  their  feelings  were  difficult  to 
express,  they  afterwards  confessed  that  they 
thought  their  language  had  done  justice  to  the 
situation.  When  the  cumbrous  pieces  of  iron 
at  last  reached  the  topmost  ridge,  and  were 
promptly  put  together  and  set  to  work,  the 
company  hoped  for  some  months  of  uninter- 
rupted progress,  with  large  dividends  looming 
in  the  distance.  They  did  loom,  constantly, 
but  somehow,  they  never  seemed  to  get  any 
nearer.  In  the  first  place,  the  furnace,  when 
up,  refused  to  work  for  a  long  time,  although 
Jack  and  the  superintendent  hovered  over  it  all 
day,  and  sat  up  with  it  all  night,  like  affection- 
ate parents  with  a  sick  child. 

When  that  difficulty  was  overcome,  fresh 
ones  arose.  For  instance,  a  portion  of  one  of 
the  mines  fell  in,  undoing  the  work  of  weeks, 
and  almost  costing  the  lives  of  the  men  who 
were  labouring  below.  They  were  only  saved 
by  "the  heroism  of  a  little  Indian  lad  of  twelve. 
He  was  employed  near  the  entrance  to  the  mine, 
and  while  busy  there  one  day,  he  noticed  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  shaft.  Looking  closer,  he 
saw  that  it  was  giving  way,  and  would  fall  with- 
in a  few  minutes.  Being  near  the  mouth,  he 
could  easily  have  escaped  before  the  crash  came; 


Mexican  Superstition.  233 

but  that  did  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him, 
and  he  rushed  back  into  the  depths  of  the  mine, 
shouting  to  the  miners  to  run  for  their  lives. 
They  threw  down  their  tools  and  fled,  while  the 
boy  went  farther  in,  to  make  sure  that  all  had 
heard  his  warning;  then  he,  too,  began  to  think 
of  saving  himself.  He  turned,  and  ran  after  the 
others,  most  of  whom  had  got  out  safely,  but  as 
the  last  batch  were  leaving  the  mouth  of  the 
shaft,  the  trembling  mass  fell.  Some  were  killed 
outright,  and  some  maimed  for  life;  and  among 
the  last  was  the  brave  little  lad,  who  had  courted 
his  fate  in  giving  his  companions  a  chance.  It 
is  almost  needless  to  say  that  everything  science 
could  do  for  him  was  tried,  but  at  the  best  he 
could  never  hope  to  work  again. 

While  the  task  of  clearing  away  the  debris  and 
preparing  to  sink  a  new  shaft  in  the  damaged 
mine  was  proceeding,  amid  much  grumbling 
from  the  disheartened  staff,  one  of  the  miners 
tried  to  console  them  by  saying  that  they  would 
get  on  better  now,  as  it  was  well  known  that  a 
mine  was  always  lucky  in  which  a  man  had  been 
killed  !  They  found  that  the  entire  village  firmly 
believed  in  this  sanguinary  superstition,  and 
were  willing  to  tell  some  very  "queer  stories" 
in  proof  of  it.     One  of  these  was  so  dramatic  in 


234  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

itself,  that  Jack  took  notes  of  the  tale  as  it  was 
repeated  to  him  by  an  Indian,  in  whose  family 
it  had  its  origin,  and  by  whom  it  had  been 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation. 
As  all  Indian  traditions  are  very  carefully  pre- 
served, it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  his- 
tory is  a  true  one,  and  is  therefore  perhaps 
worth   reproducing. 

"Don  Isidoro  de  la  Vega  was  a  Mexican  — 
that  is,  although  his  grandfather  had  been  a 
Spanish  emigre,  his  father  had  been  born  in 
Mexico,  and  had  there  married  an  Indian  woman, 
who  traced  her  lineage  back  to  one  of  the  oldest 
families  of  the  valley  of  Anahuac.  Her  son 
inherited  from  her  the  intense  Indian  hatred  of 
the  conquerors  of  their  country,  and  doubtless 
Don  Isidoro's  sentiments  found  their  way  to  the 
ears  of  the  Viceroy,  for  at  an  early  age  he 
became  aware  that  he  was  a  marked  man.  No 
preferment  was  ever  offered  to  him,  and  if  he 
had  occasion  to  appeal  to  the  courts  for  justice, 
their  decision  was  always  against  him.  In  spite 
of  this  he,  with  his  mother  and  his  pretty  sister 
Conchita,  led  a  peaceful,  happy  life  in  a  little 
rose-covered  house  on  the  long  causeway  con- 
necting the  city  of  Mexico  with  Pachuca. 

"  Pachuca  was  then  the  most  important  min- 


Don  Isidoro  de  la    Vega.  235 

ing  settlement  from  which  the  Viceroy  could 
enrich  himself  while  still  sending  the  expected 
20  per  cent  royalty  over  to  Spain.  Living  on  the 
direct  route  to  the  mines,  Don  Isidoro  often 
saw  groups  of  miserable  peons  and  wretched 
prisoners  from  the  gaols  driven  along  the  cause- 
way to  a  slavery  worse  than  that  of  Russian 
serfs  in  the  wastes  of  Siberia ;  and  he  also  made 
the  acquaintance  of  their  taskmaster,  Don  Miguel 
Gomez,  who  was  the  right  hand  of  the  Viceroy 
in  squeezing  work  —  ay,  and  life  —  out  of  the 
unfortunates  who  fell  into  his  hands.  It  was 
necessary  to  treat  this  man  with  respect,  as  a 
high  official ;  but  he  was  so  notorious  a  scoundrel 
that  Don  Isidoro  made  a  point  of  sending  his 
sister  out  of  the  room  whenever  Don  Miguel 
stopped  at  the  house  on  his  way  to  and  from 
the  mines,  as  he  soon  formed  a  habit  of  doing. 
At  first  he  asked  if  he  might  not  see  the  Sefiorita 
Conchita,  but  finding  his  request  politely  parried, 
he  ceased  to  prefer  it,  and  Don  Isidoro  thought 
the  subject  had  passed  from  his  mind,  until  one 
evening,  going  home  later  than  usual,  he  saw  a 
group  of  Don  Miguel's  cut-throat  followers  by 
the  roadside,  and  heard  a  wailing  cry  issuing 
from  the  house ! 

"  In  an  instant  he  had  dismounted  and  thrown 


236  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

open  the  door !  There,  in  the  corner  of  the 
living-room  stood  his  mother,  with  Conchita 
cowering  behind  her,  whilst  storming,  and  threat- 
ening, and  vainly  trying  to  drive  the  mother 
from  her  post,  was  Don  Miguel  Gomez !  Isi- 
doro  was  unarmed,  but  he  had  the  ruffian  by 
the  throat  in  a  moment,  and  seizing  a  bridle 
that  chanced  to  be  near,  he  administered  such  a 
thrashing  as  few  caballeros  of  Castile  have  ever 
received  !  Don  Miguel  yelled  for  help  in  a  par- 
oxysm of  fear  and  fury;  but  as  his  men  came 
running  to  the  rescue,  Don  Isidoro,  with  a  parting 
kick,  sprang  into  his  own  room  and  seized  his 
sword.  At  the  same  moment  the  Indian  mother 
slipped  a  knife  into  his  left  hand,  so  that  before 
his  assailants  could  gain  the  front  room,  he  was 
waiting  for  them  in  the  doorway.  They  did  not 
care  to  face  him,  however,  when  they  saw  the 
spectacle  he  had  so  speedily  made  of  their  chief, 
for  Don  Miguel  could  scarcely  stand,  and  the 
blood  was  dripping  into  his  beard  from  a  cut 
on  the  forehead,  where  the  hard  edge  of  the 
bridle  had  bitten  deep.  So  the  party  turned 
away  with  many  oaths,  and  helping  their  master 
into  his  saddle,  they  slowly  mounted  and  rode 
back  to  the  city. 

"  That    night,   as    the    rising   moon    gleamed 


Arrest  of  Don  Isidoro.  237 

coldly  on  the  snowy  steeps  of  Ixtaccihuatl,  and 
was  reflected  on  the  placid  bosom  of  Lake  Tez- 
coco,  the  little  house  on  the  causeway  was  sur- 
rounded by  armed  men  in  the  uniform  of  the 
Viceroy's  guards.  After  a  desperate  but  futile 
struggle,  Don  Isidoro  was  dragged  on  to  the 
main  road,  where  more  soldiers  were  guarding  a 
group  of  ragged  criminals,  —  the  scourings  of 
the  prisons  of  Mexico,  now  condemned  to  a  far 
drearier  fate  in  the  mines  of  Pachuca.  Almost 
naked,  half  stunned,  and  bleeding  from  a  dozen 
wounds,  Don  Isidoro  was  forced  into  the  ranks, 
and  securely  chained  to  a  ferocious-looking  ban- 
dit, whose  head  had  been  nearly  beaten  into  a 
jelly  while  he  was  resisting  capture  a  fortnight 
before.  As  his  hurts  had  never  been  dressed, 
even  by  the  faint  moonlight  he  presented  a  spec- 
tacle of  blood  and  filth  calculated  to  send  a 
shudder  through  his  involuntary  companion. 
After  a  march  of  about  a  mile,  the  village  gaol 
was  reached,  and  into  a  small  dungeon,  scarcely 
large  enough  for  one  man,  the  whole  gang  of 
eighteen  prisoners  were  driven  for  the  night. 
The  dirt  and  misery  were  more  than"  even  the 
hardened  malefactors  could  bear  calmly,  but  for 
Don  Isidoro  it  must  have  been  a  hell  indeed  ! 
Before    daylight    each    man   received   his    day's 


238  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

rations — just  enough  to  keep  life  in  their  tor- 
tured bodies,  and  no  more  —  and  then  they  were 
again  started  on  their  march-  To  Don  Isidoro, 
who  was  an  extremely  powerful  man,  the  forced 
marches  were  a  trifle,  but  some  of  his  weaker 
companions  fell  and  died  on  the  road.  It  was 
the  thought  of  his  sister's  fate,  and  of  the  untold 
miseries  which  awaited  him,  that  weighed  him 
down  more  than  the  chains  about  his  body.  At 
mid-day  the  prisoners  were  halted  at  a  well  and 
allowed  to  drink  their  fill,  while  the  infantry 
guard  which  had  escorted  them  from  Mexico  was 
changed  for  a  detachment  of  cavalry  intended 
to  take  charge  of  them  to  Pachuca. 

"  Don  Isidoro  recognised  the  officer  command- 
ing, and  ventured  to  address  him.  The  latter 
was  horrified  at  the  plight  of  a  man  he  had  long 
known  and  respected,  but  he  did  not  dare  to  do 
more  than  exchange  a  few  words  with  him. 
However,  in  the  course  of  these  Don  Isidoro 
learnt  with  certainty  what  he  had  naturally  sus- 
pected, that  Don  Miguel  Gomez  was  responsible 
for  the  position  in  which  he  was  placed.  The 
officer  had  heard  at  the  Palace  the  preceding 
night  that  Don  Miguel,  covered  with  dust  and 
wounds,  had  made  a  formal  report  to  the  Vice- 
roy of  some  one  who  had  spoken  ill  of  the  King 


The  A "lines  at  Pachuca.  239 

of  Spain  and  had  nearly  murdered  his  officer ! 
Then  Don  Isidoro  knew  his  fate. 

"  A  week's  march  brought  the  convicts  to 
Pachuca,  where  they  were  handed  over  to  the 
captain  of  the  most  important  mine  in  the  dis- 
trict. The  column  was  marched  through  a 
strongly  fortified  gate  into  a  high-walled  enclos- 
ure surrounded  by  sentries,  and  in  which  were 
sheds  where  the  slaves  slept  on  the  bare  ground. 
In  the  centre  of  this  enclosure  was  the  mouth  of 
the  mine  —  20  feet  in  diameter,  and  600  feet 
deep.  Down  one  side  of  the  deep  shaft  was  a 
line  of  poles,  notched  on  the  outer  surface,  and 
shouldered  against  the  projecting  rocks.  Cov- 
ered with  mud  and  slime,  wet,  greasy,  and  fre- 
quently rotten  as  they  were,  the  prisoners  had 
to  pass  up  and  down  these  poles  day  and  night, 
carrying  up  loads  of  ore  weighing  from  150  to 
250  lb.  each.  Don  Isidoro  de  la  Vega  knew 
nothing  of  mining,  and  therefore  was  not  en- 
gaged in  breaking  ore,  but  he  was  placed  in  a 
gang  employed  in  the  deepest  workings,  to  carry 
the  ore  from  the  place  where  it  was  mined  to 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  where  peons  long  accus- 
tomed to  the  dangerous  work  on  the  poles  bore 
it  safely  to  the  surface.  The  level  where  Don 
Isidoro  worked  was  a  ghastly  place.     The  rock 


240  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

was  sharp  and  irregular  above  and  below,  strik- 
ing the  head  if  the  slaves  tried  to  walk  upright, 
and  cutting  deeply  into  their  unprotected  feet 
in  the  treacherous  mud-holes.  The  bottom  of 
the  level  was  undrained,  and  often  the  wretched 
men  were  knee-deep  in  slush  and  filth,  while  the 
air  was  so  bad  that  lights  would  not  burn,  so 
they  usually  had  to  stagger  along  in  darkness. 
But  there  was  no  halting,  no  rest;  for  the  over- 
seer's whip  was  rarely  idle,  and  the  fetid  air  con- 
stantly resounded  with  the  noise  of  blows  and 
curses.  There  was  no  hope  of  pardon  for  any 
there.  They  were  too  useful  to  be  spared,  and 
death  came  only  to  the  weak. 

"  Don  Isidoro  was  a  strong  man,  but  a  month 
of  this  torture  made  a  wreck  of  him.  Each  day 
he  was  more  and  more  tempted  to  throw  him- 
from  the  poles  and  make  an  end  of  it;  but  he 
was  borne  up,  not  so  much  by  the  futile  hope 
of  escape,  as  by  the  inward  conviction  that  some 
day  he  would  hear  tidings  of  the  fate  of  his 
mother  and  sister.  But  no  news  came;  and  in 
time  his  hope  died  as  his  body  was  dying,  until 
he  had  scarcely  strength  left  to  climb  the  poles. 
At  last  one  evening,  as,  racked  with  fever,  with 
bleeding  hands  and  feet,  and  tortured  by  innu- 
merable wounds,  he  dragged  himself  up  the  last 


A    Wild  Tragedy.  241 

ladder,  to  stagger  to  the  shed  where  he  slept,  he 
heard  his  number  called.  The  speaker  was  the 
master  of  his  gang — a  ruffian  whose  devilish 
love  of  cruelty  well  fitted  him  for  the  post. 
Half-blinded  by  the  setting  sun,  and  stumbling 
every  other  step,  Don  Isidoro  went  round  the 
great  shaft  to  where  the  master  was  standing 
with  Don  Miguel  Gomez  by  his  side. 

"  '  So,  Don  Isidoro  de  la  Vega,  you  are  here,' 
said  the  latter,  with  an  exultant  laugh.  '  I  hope 
you  appreciate  your  quarters?  ' 

"  '  Oh,  Don  Miguel !  '  cried  Isidoro,  '  for  the 
love  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  pardon  the  blows 
I  struck,  and  release  me  !  It  is  a  hell  under- 
ground there  !  ' 

"'The  half-breed  dog  seems  discontented,' 
said  Don  Miguel  to  his  companion.  '  One 
would  suppose  from  his  remark  that  you  do 
not  treat  your  prisoner  well,  Seiior  Capitan?' 

"  '  I  do  my  best,'  replied  the  ruffian.  '  Only 
turn  him  round,  and  you  will  see  evidences  of 
my  care  upon  his  back  !  ' 

"  '  This  man  is  a  devil !  '  broke  in  Isidoro. 
'  He  has  murdered  many.  For  God's  sake, 
have  pity  on  us  !  ' 

"'Ah!'  remarked  Don  Miguel.  'You  see 
how  he  insults  you,  Sefior  Capitan ;  you  must 
16 


242  Mexican  History  and  Legend. 

have  dealt  with  him  too  leniently.  Give  him 
harder  work  to  do.  And  now,  Don  Isidoro,  I 
return  to  Mexico  to-morrow,  where  I  shall  see 
the  charming  Conchita.  I  will  tell  her  how 
you  are  enjoying  yourself,  and  as  you  say  it 
is  hell  below  there —  go  back,  you  hound  !  ' 

"  '  I  will,  and  you  with  me  !  '  shouted  Isidoro, 
as,  with  one  bound,  he  passed  an  arm  round 
each  of  his  tormentors,  and  with  an  effort  of 
superhuman  strength  sprang  over  the  edge  of 
the  great  shaft !  There  was  one  wild  shriek 
of  horror  and  anguish  as  the  three  men  plunged 
down  600  feet  into  the  dark  depth  of  the  mine 
—  and  then  silence  !  " 

"  Yes,  sefior,"  said  the  Indian,  when  he  had 
finished  the  story,  "  it  was  horrible,  but  that 
mine  is  the  richest  in  Mexico  to  this  day  ! " 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE   CITY   OF   MEXICO. 

CHARACTER    OF    THE    PEONS RELAXATIONS    OP    THE    ENGLISH 

SETTLERS  —  JACK  JEBIi's  LOVE  OF  THE  CAPITAL —  ILLUS- 
TRATIONS OF  MEXICAN  MANNERS AN  ATTACK  ON  THE  GAOL 

—  HOW  A  MOB  WAS  MANAGED  —  AN  "  ELECTRICAL  "  STATE 
OF  THE  POLITICAL  ATMOSPHFRE POPULAR  DEMONSTRA- 
TIONS—  A      TINY      MATCH-SELLER  —  A      SKIRMISH      IN       THE 

STREETS  BETWEEN  MILITARY'  AND  CIVILIANS A  LUDICROUS 

ANTI-CLIMAX  —  MISPLACED      PHILANTHROPY  THE      RULE 

OF  PRESIDENT  DIAZ  HIS  PRIVATE    CHARACTER  —  LOVE  OF 

SPORT  —  STRICT    MEASURES  WITH    BANDITTI. 

In  due  course  the  damaged  mine  in  the  Sierras 
was  opened  up  again,  although  the  fact  of  its 
having  claimed  its  tribute  of  lives  failed  to  make 
any  difference,  for  it  continued  to  give  trouble 
of  one  sort  or  another  to  the  end.  But  every 
one  did  his  best,  including  the  peons,  who  could 
not  get  used  to  the  idea  that  if  they  laboured  all 
the  week  they  would  certainly  be  paid  on  Satur- 
day, and  who  stuck  to  work  partly  out  of  sheer 
curiosity  to  see  how  long  this  state  of  things  was 
going  to  last.  The  one  fact  of  which",  from  their 
past  experiences,  they  felt  absolutely  sure,  was 
that  in  order  to  make  the  mines  pay  there  must 
be  cheating  somewhere.     Therefore,  if  the  pay- 


244  The  City  of  Mexico. 

rolls  continued  to  be  met  every  week,  what  was 
more  likely  than  that  bad  money  should  be 
foisted  upon  them?  The  result  of  this  deduc- 
tion in  the  native  mind  was  that,  on  receiving 
his  wages,  each />  con  retired  in  turn  to  the  door- 
step of  the  office,  where  he  carefully  rang  every 
coin,  down  to  the  last  centavo.  Even  then  he 
was  not  entirely  convinced,  but  proceeded  to 
bite  each  piece  of  money  before  tying  it  all  up 
in  a  handkerchief  and  making  way  for  the  next 
^corner,  to  go  through  the  same  performance. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  always  took  an 
entire  day  to  pay  the  men  off,  and  by  evening  it 
was  unsafe  to  go  near  the  long-suffering  cashier ! 
As  for  the  peons,  once  satisfied  of  the  soundness 
of  the  money,  they  went  and  got  drunk  upon  it 
at  once,  in  order  to  waste  as  little  time  as  pos- 
sible between  Saturday  and  Monday.  Pulque 
—  the  national  drink — is  cheap,  and  for  the 
expenditure  of  about  a  halfpenny  it  is  possible 
to  get  helplessly  drunk,  but  it  takes  time  to  do 
so ;  while  aquadiente,  though  more  expensive, 
does  its  work  quicker.  Therefore  the  latter  was 
the  more  popular  of  the  two,  though  its  strong 
resemblance  to  methylated  spirits  might  have 
made  some  fastidious  people  hesitate  before 
drinking  it. 


National  Beverages.  245 

While  referring  to  the  national  beverages,  it 
would  be  a  pity  to  omit  the  story  of  a  Mexican 
cook  (about  the  only  one  in  the  country  at  the 
time)  who,  among  innumerable  virtues,  had  the 
one  vice  of  having  a  twenty-four  hours'  "  bust" 
regularly  once  a-month.  Her  mistress,  anxious 
to  meet  her  views,  offered  to  give  her  a  day  off 
whenever  she  felt  an  attack  coming  on,  if  she 
would  only  stick  to  work  meanwhile.  But  the 
cook  said  that  she  could  not  be  bound  by  rules 
in  such  a  matter;  and  she  usually  chose  the 
evening  of  a  dinner-party  for  being  discovered 
fast  asleep,  with  her  head  in  the  soup-tureen. 
Then  the  mistress,  driven  to  desperation  by  the 
dread  of  having  to  part  with  her  treasure,  offered 
not  only  a  day's  leave,  but  also  to  provide  the 
liquor  herself!  This  was  too  good  to  be  resisted, 
and  the  thirsty  one  accepted  the  terms;  while 
the  excellent  woman  who  arranged  them  contin- 
ued to  enjoy  her  dinners  with  an  easy  mind. 

The  little  English  community  up  in  the  moun- 
tains worked  very  hard  for  a  couple  of  years  after 
the  mines  were  first  taken  over ;  their  only  relaxa- 
tion being  a  ride,  about  sunset,  round  the  narrow 
trails  overhung  with  maidenhair,  and  looking 
down  upon  deep  gorges  covered  with  tropical 
raiment  of  palms  and  ferns.     Or  if,  after  a  par- 


246  The  City  of  Mexico.     . 

ticularly  busy  day,  every  one  felt  too  tired  to  stir, 
they  sat  round  the  ever  welcome  fire  of  sweet- 
scented  pitch-pine,  whose  fantastic  shadows  on 
the  white-washed  walls  seemed  to  help  in  the 
building  of  many  castles,  then  —  and  always  — 
in  the  air. 

When  the  preliminary  difficulties  had  at  last 
been  overcome,  and  a  regular  routine  established, 
it  became  unnecessary  for  Jack  Jebb  to  spend 
all  his  time  at  the  mines,  and  indeed  he  was  more 
usefid  to  the  company —  of  which  he  was  after- 
wards made  managing  director  —  in  superintend- 
ing its  financial  and  general  management.  This 
entailed  frequent  visits  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and 
occasional  trips  to  England.  The  former  is  a 
place  that  grows  upon  its  visitors,  as  Jack  soon 
found,  and  he  had  not  been  living  there  long, 
before  he  knew  and  loved  every  ruined  stone 
that  had  helped  to  pile  a  monastery,  or  in  long 
past  days  had  looked  down  on  human  passion 
and  pain  from  the  walls  of  an  Aztec  temple.  He 
never  tired  of  the  narrow  streets  with  their  grey 
old  houses,  which,  but  for  the  sunshine  and  the 
flowers  that  ever  surround  them,  would  oppress 
the  beholder  with  a  vague  sense  of  wrong  and 
suffering  silently  endured  behind  their  barred 
windows.     And  yet —  in  spite  of  its  age  and  the 


Manners  Suggesting  Opera  Bo?iffe.      247 

sadness  of  its  history  —  there  is  much  in  Mexican 
life  and  manners  that  irresistibly  suggests  ope'ra 
bouffe  ! 

For  instance,  returning  late  one  night  to  his 
hotel,  Jack  saw  a  carriage  driving  furiously 
down  the  principal  street,  with  its  occupant 
scattering  seditious  pamphlets  from  right  to  left 
of  the  windows  as  he  passed ;  while  galloping 
after  him  in  hot  haste  were  two  of  the  national 
guards  —  the  police  taking  ineffectual  pot-shots 
at  the  vehicle  as  it  flew  along !  It  turned  out 
afterwards  that  the  man  who  ran  this  gauntlet 
was  an  emissary  of  one  of  the  former  presidents, 
who  chose  this  singular  method  of  spreading  his 
propaganda.  He  did  not,  however,  get  into 
office,  which  perhaps  was  just  as  well,  for  it 
was  said  that  when  he  previously  quitted  the 
presidential  dignity  there  were  exactly  twenty-five 
cents  left  in  the  treasury  — they  were  supposed 
to  have  been  overlooked  ! 

Another  night  was  the  anniversary  of  the 
taking  of  the  Bastille,  an  event  which  the  large 
French  colony  in  Mexico  always  celebrates  with 
much  enthusiasm  ;  and  probably  ofl  account  of 
its  being  an  excuse  for  a  holiday,  the  Mexican 
peons  join  in  the  rejoicings  with  fervour — and 
drinks.      Perhaps    on    this    occasion    they    had 


248  The  City  of  Mexico. 

imbibed  and  rejoiced  more  than  usual ;  anyhow, 
the  speeches  in  the  plaza  at  night  on  the 
glorious  exploits  of  bygone  French  patriots 
excited  them  to  such  a  point  that  they  began 
to  think,  Why  should  they  not  hand  down  their 
names  to  an  admiring  posterity,  by  taking  the 
Mexican  prison  and  releasing  all  the  prisoners 
at  once? 

Jack,  having  listened  to  a  few  such  speeches, 
saw  there  was  going  to  be  fun,  and  placed 
himself  in  a  position  to  get  a  good  view.  He 
had  not  long  to  wait,  for  after  a  little  more 
rousing  rhetoric,  the  mob  of  about  two  hundred 
peons  began  to  march  on  the  gaol,  not  very  far 
from  where  they  stood.  When,  shouting  and 
yelling,  they  approached  the  gates,  expecting  a 
desperate  fight  with  the  guards  before  getting 
them  down,  to  their  surprise  they  found  the 
massive  portals  left  invitingly  open  !  Of  course 
they  concluded  there  was  to  be  no  resistance, 
and  marched  into  the  courtyard  triumphantly, 
singing  a  Mexican  Marseillaise.  No  sooner  was 
the  last  man  safely  inside  than  the  heavy  gates 
were  clanged  together  by  previously  invisible 
guards,  who  seemed  to  start  up  in  hundreds 
out  of  the  very  earth,  and  the  unlucky  patriots 
found  themselves  thoroughly  trapped  !     They 


Management  of  a  Mob.  249 

were  promptly  bestowed  in  separate  cells,  and 
after  a  night's  reflection  therein,  they  were  re- 
leased next  morning  with  a  firm  resolution  in 
the  breast  of  each  man  to  let  the  prisoners 
alone  in  future.  As  to  Jack,  after  seeing  the 
de'noiiment  of  the  attack,  he  went  home  shaking 
with  laughter,  but  with  a  conviction  that  the 
management  of  a  mob  is  one  of  the  things 
"they  do  better  abroad." 

Just  at  this  time  the  political  atmosphere 
was  decidedly  "  electrical,"  and  there  had  been 
several  small  conflicts  between  the  people  and 
the  police.  Simultaneously  with  the  then  Presi- 
dent's retirement,  an  unpopular  measure  was 
being  forced  through  Congress,  and  the  stu- 
dents were  being  egged  on  by  the  clericals  to 
make  a  demonstration;  so  that  a  row  might 
occur  any  day,  and  Jack  made  a  point  of  being 
constantly  about,  in  order  not  to  miss  it  when  it 
came. 

One  evening  as  he  was  going  with  a  friend 
to  dine  at  a  cafe,  they  saw  a  mob  march  down 
a  side  street  in  a  dense  column,  from  the  midst 
of  which  puffed  little  jets  of  smoke  as  the  crowd 
"  demonstrated  "  by  firing  revolvers  in  the  air ! 
No  harm  was  meant  or  done  then,  but  the  two 
Englishmen  congratulated  themselves  that  the 


250  The  City  of  Mexico. 

plot  was  ripening,  and  that  by  the  time  they 
had  finished  their  meal  there  might  be  some- 
thing worth  seeing.  On  reaching  their  destina- 
tion they  seated  themselves  at  a  table  close  to 
a  window  which  looked  on  the  street;  but  the 
crowd  had  gone  in  another  direction,  and  as  it 
was  the  midst  of  the  rainy  season,  with  the 
streets  consequently  like  stagnant  rivers,  there 
were  few  passers-by.  The  coffee  and  cigarette 
stage  had  been  reached,  when  Jack,  happening 
to  look  up,  saw  a  child's  face  pressed  against 
the  window-pane.  Her  eyes  were  wandering 
towards  the  remains  of  food  still  on  the  table, 
and  it  did  not  need  the  thin  little  face,  with 
dark  rings  beneath  the  shy  grey  eyes,  to  tell 
a  story  of  hunger  and  privation.  She  seemed 
inclined  to  run  away  when  she  first  saw  herself 
observed,  but  in  an  instant  mustered  up  enough 
courage  to  hold  a  box  of  matches  against  the 
window.  Jack  motioned  to  her  to  come  in, 
which  with  some  hesitation  she  did ;  then  he 
gave  her  a  roll  to  eat,  while  he  asked  how  she 
came  to  be  out  selling  matches  on  such  a  wild 
night. 

The  child,  who  was  about  eight  years  old, 
and  who  had  fair  hair  and  an  English-look- 
ing  face,  told  him  between  mouthfuls  that  her 


The  Zocalo.  251 

father  and  mother  were  dead,  and  she  lived  with 
an  elder  sister,  who  could  not  earn  enough  for 
both,  and  just  now  was  out  of  work  altogether. 
Her  grandfather  had  been  an  American  who  was 
killed  in  the  storming  of  Chapultepec,  which  of 
course  accounted  for  her  un-Mexican  appear- 
ance. Jack  was  touched  by  the  poor  little 
thing's  sad  face  and  evident  destitution,  so  he 
asked  for  her  name  and  address,  with  a  vague 
idea  that  he  might  be  able  to  do  something  for 
her.  Then  he  bought  up  her  stock  of  matches 
at  a  premium,  and  bade  her  "  good  night,"  tell- 
ing her  to  go  straight  home,  as  the  streets  were 
likely  to  become  dangerous  later  on.  With 
many  "  milliones  de  gratias,  senor"  the  child 
departed,  and  the  two  men,  after  paying  their 
bill,  began  to  wend  their  way  to  the  Zocalo  —  a 
large  and  lovely  garden  surrounding  the  cathe- 
dral, where  the  city  disports  itself  in  the  evening, 
and  where  what  correspond  to  "  mass  meetings  " 
in  Mexico  are  usually  held.  In  a  kiosk  situated 
in  the  centre  of  a  splendid  circle  of  trees,  a 
military  band  was  playing  selections  from 
"  Faust,"  while  people  sauntered  slowly  past 
listening  to  the  music,  or  talking  softly  together. 
It  was  a  perfect  night,  now  the  rain  had  ceased 
and  the  clear  full    moon    brought    into    strong 


252  The  City  of  Mexico. 

relief  the  great  white  towers  of  the  cathedral, 
and  the  long  palm-bordered  terrace  which  runs 
about  its  base.  As  Jack  and  his  companion 
began  to  walk  up  and  down  here,  they  were 
accosted  by  an  officer  who  was  evidently  on 
guard.  He  said  he  could  tell  the  senores  were 
foreigners,  and  he  therefore  advised  them  to  go 
straight  home,  as  trouble  was  expected  that 
night,  and  once  firing  commenced  no  one's  life 
would  be  safe  in  the  streets.  The  two  men 
thanked  the  courteous  officer  for  his  advice ; 
but  almost  before  they  had  finished  doing  so,  a 
succession  of  shots  were  heard  close  by,  followed 
instantly  by  a  large  crowd  which  surged  round 
one  side  of  the  cathedral,  while  from  the  other 
side  a  troop  of  infantry  charged  with  pointed 
bayonets  !  In  these  circumstances  discretion  was 
certainly  the  better  part  of  valour  for  people 
caught  between  the  two  opposing  forces,  and 
our  friends  fled  down  the  steps  for  their  lives, 
just  in  time  to  escape  being  trampled  under  foot 
by  the  excited  mob,  or  spitted  on  the  bayonets 
of  the  soldiers !  As  the  fight  seemed  inclined 
to  confine  itself  to  the  terrace  on  which  it 
began,  the  pair  went  over  to  the  band-stand, 
about  a  hundred  yards  off,  to  watch  the  pro- 
gress of  events.     It  was  evidently  a  desperate 


Random  Firing  in  the  Streets.  253 

struggle,  and  the  firing  grew  continuous,  as  the 
combatants  fought  to  the  air  of  the  "  Soldiers' 
Chorus,"  for  the  band  never  left  off  playing. 
Anything  more  like  a  scene  from  "  La  Grande 
Duchesse  "  cannot  well  be  imagined  than  the 
furious  battle  on  the  cathedral  steps,  while  the 
stolid  musicians  attended  strictly  to  business ! 
At  last  it  became  evident  that  the  troops  were 
getting  the  mastery,  as  the  mob  began  gradually 
to  fall  back,  firing  at  random  as  it  went.  Within 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  of  its  commencement  the 
whole  thing  was  finished,  and  the  only  sign  of 
anything  unusual  having  taken  place  was  the 
sight  of  the  soldiers  marching  off  squads  of 
prisoners.  The  rest  of  the  crowd  had  melted 
away  as  suddenly  as  it  had  made  the  attack. 

As  Jack  and  his  friend  started  homewards, 
having  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  show,  they  found 
that  it  was  not  so  entirely  over  as  they  thought; 
for  a  band  of  the  dispersed  mob  had  chosen  the 
street  they  were  bound  for  in  which  to  make  a 
final  demonstration  —  i.e.,  a  little  wild  shooting. 
Neither  man  was  armed,  nor  would  it  have  been 
of  much  use  if  they  had  been,  so  they  kept  in 
the  shadow  of  a  doorway  until  the  crowd  had 
passed.  To  Jack's  surprise  he  found,  crouching 
in  terror  on  the  step,  the  little  match-girl  he  had 


254  The  City  of  Mexico. 

helped  earlier  in  the  evening.  She  had  heard 
the  firing  before  getting  far  from  the  cafe',  and 
being  too  frightened  to  proceed,  she  had  lain 
hidden  ever  since  beside  the  door  where  she  was 
discovered.  Jack  immediately  thought  that,  with 
the  streets  in  such  a  dangerous  state,  it  was 
impossible  now  for  the  child  to  go  through  them 
alone  ;  so  as  soon  as  the  one  in  which  they  stood 
was  empty,  he  told  her  to  show  him  where  she 
lived,  his  friend  volunteering  to  accompany  them. 
It  was  a  low  part  of  the  city  that  she  led  them 
through,  but  fortunately  most  of  its  population 
was  occupied  elsewhere  that  night,  so  they 
reached  the  miserable  hut  which  she  called 
home  without  molestation.  Her  sister  met  the 
party  at  the  door,  and  was  evidently  glad  to  see 
the  little  one  safely  back.  But  of  course  she 
ought  never  to  have  sent  her  out  alone  on  such 
a  night;  and  Jack's  companion,  who  was  a  fluent 
Spanish  scholar,  could  not  resist  the  temptation 
to  give  the  elder  girl  a  little  salutary  advice. 
Unfortunately  for  its  effect,  he  was  just  in  the 
midst  of  a  beautifully  rounded  period,  when, 
stepping  carelessly  backward,  he  went  up  to  his 
knees  in  a  pool  of  green  and  slimy  mud,  left  in 
the  unpaved  roadway  by  the  recent  rains.  He 
did  not  pause  an  instant  in  the  delivery  of  his 


Deceit  of  Cannot  Lopez.  255 

speech;  only,  instead  of  moral  sentiment,  there 
issued  from  his  lips  such  a  stream  of  heartfelt 
objurgations  that  his  listeners  became  perfectly 
helpless  with  laughter  at  the  sudden  change  in 
his  views. 

After  this  anti-climax  to  the  evening's  adven- 
tures, the  two  men  betook  themselves  to  their 
hotel  without  further  delay.  Jack,  however,  did 
not  lose  sight  of  the  little  match-girl,  but  finding 
that  her  great  desire  was  to  be  educated,  in  order 
that  she  might  some  day  gain  her  living  by  teach- 
ing, he  began  to  make  her  a  weekly  allowance, 
which  he  continued  for  nearly  ten  years.  From 
time  to  time  she  and  her  sister  came  to  see  him, 
and  as  they  were  both  very  grateful,  and  the 
child  always  neatly  dressed,  he  took  it  for  granted 
that  everything  was  all  right,  and  did  not  trouble 
himself  to  inquire  how  and  where  his  protegee 
was  being  taught.  But  at  last,  when  she  was  (for 
a  Mexican)  grown  up,  it  did  occur  to  him  that  if 
she  were  ever  going  to  support  herself,  it  was 
about  time  she  began  to  do  so.  So,  with  a  good 
deal  of  difficulty,  he  found  out  from  her  the  name 
of  the  school  she  was  at,  and  sent  to  the  mistress 
of  it  to  inquire  if  Carmen  Lopez  were  not  now 
sufficiently  advanced  to  take  a  situation  as  a 
teacher. 


256  The  City  of  Mexico. 

To  Jack's  utter  bewilderment  the  answer  came 
back  that  Carmen  Lopez  had  ceased  to  attend 
the  school  years  before,  and  since  then  had  been 
living  at  home  in  idleness  with  her  sister  on  some 
private  means  they  were  supposed  to  have ! 
To  confirm  the  truth  of  the  story,  the  girl  never 
turned  up  again  for  her  weekly  dole,  and  on  in- 
quiry, was  found  to  have  removed  from  her 
former  address.  Of  course  she  and  her  sister 
had  thoroughly  taken  in  the  unsuspicious  Inglesc, 
and  had  led  a  very  pleasant  life  at  his  expense. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  this  was  Jack's 
first  and  last  attempt  at  philanthropy  where  the 
female  Mexican  was  concerned. 

The  fight  at  the  cathedral  was  the  last  dis- 
turbance of  the  sort  for  a  long  while.  Shortly 
afterwards  President  Diaz  came  into  the  power 
which  he  has  now  held  firmly  during  three  terms 
of  office,  and  will  probably  continue  to  hold  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.  Mexicans  are  quite  keen 
enough  to  see  the  advantages  to  trade  of  internal 
peace,  and  to  appreciate  the  clear  head  and 
strong  arm  of  probably  the  only  man  in  the 
country  able  to  secure  it  to  them.  The  Presi- 
dent is  as  good  a  shot  as  he  is  a  statesman,  and 
lie  was  the  principal  guest  at  many  a  shooting- 
party  at  which  Jack  was  also  present.     Away 


President  Diaz.  257 

from  the  cares  of  office,  in  the  comparative  free- 
dom of  a  bachelor  gathering,  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  Mexico  was  seen  at  his  best,  and  it  was 
easy  to  understand  the  force  of  character  which 
had  helped  the  soldier  of  fortune  to  climb  the 
ladder  of  life,  until  he  reached  his  present 
station.  When  in  Mexico  his  hours  of  labour 
are  from  six  in  the  morning  until  eight  at  night, 
and  probably  no  man  in  the  country  works  so 
hard  as  he ;  yet  somehow  he  finds  time  to  ac- 
quire an  enormous  mass  of  extraneous  informa- 
tion. The  thing  that  surprised  Jack  most  about 
him  was  his  absolute  familiarity  with  any  sub- 
ject under  discussion,  from  the  spots  on  the  sun 
to  the  qualities  of  iron  pyrites,  or  from  the 
history  of  Newton  to  the  latest  electrical  dis- 
covery. He  is  a  man  of  over  sixty,  who  looks 
no  more  than  forty,  and  whose  idea  of  relaxa- 
tion is  a  twelve  hours'  tramp  through  reeds  and 
marshes  in  search  of  sport.  Thanks  to  his 
uncompromising  measures,  it  is  possible  at  the 
present  time  to  travel  all  over  the  country 
with  little  fear  of  molestation,  for  he  has  suc- 
ceeded in  entirely  destroying  the  robber  bands 
which  used  to  scour  the  roads.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  now  form  a  considerable  part  of  the 
army,  for  at  an  early  stage  of  his  presidency 
'7 


258  The  City  of  Mexico. 

Diaz  gave  them  the  chance  of  enlisting  or  of 
being  shot  down  mercilessly  by  his  troopers. 
Needless  to  say,  most  of  them  chose  to  join  the 
army,  and  capital  soldiers  they  make ;  while 
those  who  held  out  for  the  privilege  of  earning 
their  living  in  their  own  way  were  hunted  into 
their  secret  strongholds  by  the  regular  troops, 
and  almost  invariably  shot  while  trying  to  escape. 
It  is  said  that  one  bandit  begged  his  captor 
to  tie  him  on  his  horse,  as  then  no  one  could 
say  he  had  made  any  attempt  at  flight. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    "  KNIGHTS    OF  THE    ROAD." 

A  GOOD  DAY'S  SPORT  —  REMINISCENCES  OF  TRAVELLING  ADVEN- 
TURES  A  GENERAL    ROBBED    FOUR    TIMES   IN    ONE     DAY 

GENEROUS    BANDITS — A  GENTLEMANLY    CAPTOR BANDITS 

OF     AN     AMATEURISH      CUT  THE      LIMIT     OF      ENDURANCE 

REACHED  CORROBORATION       OF      THE       NARRATIVE  —  AN- 
OTHER TALE  —  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF  DISBANDED   TROOPS  — 

A  WAR-INTERLUDE  IN  THE  INTERESTS  OF  JUSTICE ROBBER 

CHIEFS    AND    THE    CHURCH  —  DEATH   OF  JEBB'S    REMAINING 

AUNT  —  MEETS    HIS    SECOND  WIFE MARRIAGE    POSTPONED 

FOR  FINANCIAL  REASONS  —  AN  ORIGINAL  HONEYMOON. 

On  his  shooting  expeditions  to  some  of  the  great 
fortified  haciendas,  Jack  was  by  way  of  hearing 
a  good  many  tales  of  the  doings  of"  the  knights 
of  the  road"  in  the  days  when  railways  were  not, 
and  when  nothing  short  of  a  troop  of  cavalry 
could  protect  the  hapless  traveller  from  robbery 
on  most  of  the  highways  of  Mexico.  At  one 
large  shooting  party  the  host  was  the  only  civil- 
ian and  Jack  the  only  foreigner  present,  as  they 
sat  through  the  interminable  Mexican  dinner 
discussing  the  day's  sport.  They  all  felt 
thoroughly  soothed  and  satisfied  with  the  "bag" 
they  had  brought  in  —  over  a  hundred  brace  of 


260  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road" 

yellow-legged  plover,  ten  couple  of  duck,  and  a 
good  number  of  bittern;  so  that  by  the  time 
they  reached  the  stage  of  such  coffee  as  can  only 
be  procured  in  Mexico,  the  diners  had  all  melted 
into  a  "  reminiscent"  mood.  Through  the  win- 
dows of  the  huge  dining-room,  which  had  once 
served  as  a  refectory  when  the  place  was  a  mon- 
astery, the  last  gleams  of  sunlight  were  kissing 
the  cold  snows  of  the  great  volcano  that  towered 
above  the  hacienda.  Some  one  remarked  that 
even  now  it  might  be  possible  for  a  gang  of  the 
bandits  who  formerly  infested  the  mountain  to 
attack  the  place  in  force  and  get  away  with  a 
large  amount  of  plunder  before  being  caught. 

"  No,"  said  one  of  the  guests,  "  they  dare  not 
risk  it  now;  but  twenty  years  ago  I've  no  doubt 
our  host  had  some  lively  encounters  with  them. 
Why,  the  last  time  I  went  to  Spain,  somewhere 
in  the  sixties,  I  was  robbed  four  times  in  one 
clay  !  " 

Of  course  this  statement  was  received  with  a 
shout  of  incredulous  laughter,  and  cries  of  "  Tell 
us  the  story,  General !  " 

"You  don't  deserve  it,  but  I  will,"  replied  the 
General.  "  Well,  as  I  said,  I  was  going  to  Spain, 
and  fortunately  for  me  I  sent  various  sums  to 
Vera  Cruz  and  to  Spain  in  advance,  by  means  of 


A  General  Robbed.  261 

bills  of  exchange;  so  that  when  I  took  my  seat 
in  the  coach  at  Puebla  on  the  way  to  Vera  Cruz, 
I  had  little  of  value  about  me  except  a  half-a- 
dozen  onsets  and  an  English  hunter- watch.  It 
was  about  3  A.M.  when  we  started,  and  in  the 
two  hours  before  the  commencement  of  daylight 
we  should  get  so  short  a  distance  from  the  city 
that  we  thought  ourselves  secure  from  molesta- 
tion. There  were  four  inside  passengers  beside 
myself,  all  too  sleepy  to  talk ;  so  we  alternately 
dozed  and  smoked  cigarettes  for  about  an  hour, 
when  all  at  once  we  heard  a  trampling  of  horses 
on  both  sides  of  the  coach,  and  to  our  horror 
we  were  halted  !  I  was  trying  to  put  my  head 
out  of  the  window  to  see  what  was  the  matter, 
when  I  was  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the 
effectual  method  of  having  the  muzzle  of  a  pis- 
tol thrust  into  my  mouth  !  Then  we  were  all 
ordered  out;  though  I  found  time  first  to  slip 
my  watch  into  my  boot.  Day  was  just  dawning, 
and  we  could  distinguish  the  figures  of  about 
twenty  men  grouped  round  the  coach.  They 
were  all  on  horseback,  except  those  who  had 
dismounted  in  order  to  turn  out  "the  baggage 
or  to  guard  us.  Our  pockets  were  promptly 
searched,  and  their  contents  vanished  as  if  by 
magic,  while  our  portmanteaux  were  being  torn 


262  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road" 

open  and  hastily  rummaged.  Of  course  what- 
ever arms  we  had  upon  us  were  appropriated  at 
once ;  but  the  search  was  not  so  complete  as 
it  might  have  been  had  our  early  callers  not 
seemed  pressed  for  time. 

"  As  it  was,  within  ten  minutes,  and  with 
scarcely  a  sentence  spoken  on  either  side,  the 
bandits  were  all  in  the  saddle  again  and  riding 
off  at  a  gallop  towards  the  wooded  base  of 
Malinche,  leaving  us  with  our  rifled  belongings 
strewn  about  the  dusty  road,  as  we  stood  help- 
lessly gazing  at  each  other.  The  whole  thing 
was  so  quickly  over  that  it  seemed  like  a  dream. 
The  driver  alone  was  as  composed  as  ever,  and 
removed  his  cigar  from  his  lips  to  remark  that 
they  must  be  good  people,  because  they  had 
not  harmed  the  coach  by  so  much  as  a  bullet- 
hole  ;  though,  he  added,  they  might  have  been 
afraid  of  the  patrol  hearing  shots.  Well,  we  re- 
packed our  clothing  and  continued  our  journey, 
cursing  both  the  bandits  and  the  Government 
that  permitted  them. 

"  The  next  few  hours  passed  peacefully,  until 
at  about  eleven  o'clock  we  were  just  beginning 
the  rapid  descent  into  the  valley  of  Orizaba, 
when  for  the  second  time  we  were  halted  ;  more- 
over, it  was  not  by  mounted   men  in  a  hurry 


A  Gentlemanly  Captor.  263 

now,  but  was  very  deliberately  done.  At  a 
sharp  turn  we  found  a  felled  tree  lying  across 
the  road,  and  looking  round,  we  saw  that  we 
were  in  a  trap  !  Fifteen  or  twenty  men  were 
lounging  towards  us  from  the  cover  of  some 
rocks  fifty  yards  behind,  while  half-a-dozen 
more,  who  seemed  to  have  arisen  from  the 
earth,  were  advancing  with  rifles  at  the  '  ready  ' ! 
Alongside  the  coach,  sitting  on  a  rock  smoking 
a  cigarette,  was  a  most  gentlemanly-looking 
man,  evidently  the  captain  of  the  band,  and 
some  distance  up  the  mountain-side  were  more 
men,  with  quite  a  troop  of  horses  and  mules. 

"  '  Good  morning,  senores,'  said  the  captain 
politely.  '  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  go 
through  some  formalities  with  you  ;  but  it  is  the 
fortune  of  war,  and  my  men  are  greatly  in  need 
of  a  few  necessaries,  as  their  pay  is  in  arrears. 
So  I  must  trouble  you  to  alight.' 

"  I  ventured  to  remark  that  the  regret  was 
mutual,  as  a  requisition  had  already  been  made 
upon  us  shortly  after  leaving  Puebla. 

"  '  Still,'  persisted  the  captain,  '  I  should  like 
to  show  you  some  of  the  beauties  of  this  part  of 
the  country,'  and  he  led  us  off  to  a  clump  of 
pines  beautifully  situated  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff 
overlooking  the  valley  three  thousand   feet  be- 


264  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

low.  '  A  lovely  view ! '  said  our  captor,  softly, 
'  and  splendid  trees.  Well,  senores,  we  will  now 
have  no  more  fooling.  Doubtless  when  you 
were  attacked  this  morning  you  had  time  to 
secrete  several  trifles  that  we  may  find  useful. 
Kindly  hand  them  over  at  once ;  and  if,  when 
you  are  afterwards  searched,  my  men  find  that 
you  have  concealed  anything,  those  trees  shall 
bear  fruit,  for  you  will  all  be  hanged  upon  them 
within  ten  minutes!  ' 

"We  could  see  that  the  scoundrel  was  in  dead 
earnest,  and  I  confess  that  I  fished  my  watch 
out  of  my  boot  at  once,  at  the  same  time  hand- 
ing over  a  couple  of  otizas  I  had  slipped  into 
the  lining  of  my  hat.  One  of  my  fellow-pas- 
sengers began  to  clutch  despairingly  at  his 
throat,  and  I  thought  at  first  that  he  was  going 
to  have  a  fit.  But  he  was  only  taking  out  of  his 
neckcloth  bank  bills  for  $2500.  Another  pas- 
senger ruefully  explained  that  under  the  cushion 
of  his  seat  in  the  coach  would  be  found  a  bag 
containing  twenty  onzas.  The  captain  took 
over  our  effects,  thanking  us  politely;  but  the 
outside  passengers,  who  only  contributed  a  few 
odd  dollars,  received  no  thanks  at  all.  In  the 
meanwhile  our  baggage  was  being  searched,  and 
everything  of  value  annexed.     Finally,  the  shirts 


A  Generous  Bandit.  265 

worn  by  myself  and  another  passenger  were  bor- 
rowed by  the  lieutenant  and  sergeant,  who  re- 
marked that  they  were  going  to  a  funcion  that 
night,  and  should  require  clean  linen,  the  latter 
part  of  which  statement  was  palpably  true. 

"  '  But,  senor  capitan,'  I  mustered  up  courage 
to  say,  '  we  have  had  nothing  to  eat  all  day,  and 
now  when  we  reach  Aguas  Frias,  where  we 
intended  to  breakfast,  we  shall  not  have  a  cent 
among  us  to  pay  for  a  meal.' 

"  '  True,'  said  the  ruffian.  '  I  shall  be  delighted 
to  relieve  your  necessities.  You,  I  think,  pre- 
sented me  with  a  gold  watch  and  two  onzas. 
Allow  me  the  pleasure !  '  and  he  gave  me  a  dol- 
lar, with  a  bow  that  would  have  graced  a  cabal- 
Icro  of  old  Castile. 

" '  You,'  he  resumed  to  another  passenger, 
'made  me  a  loan  of  $2500;  pray  accept  this 
trifle,'  handing  out  another  dollar. 

" '  You,  senor,  told  us  where  to  find  the  little 
bag  of  onzas,'  and  with  a  fascinating  smile 
another  dollar  changed  owners ;  '  but  as  for  you 
ladrones,'  went  on  the  captain,  with  a  com- 
plete change  of  manner  to  the  outside  passen- 
gers, 'you  scarcely  contributed  anything;  so  as 
I  can't  afford  to  keep  you  in  idleness,  you  must 
beg  your  breakfast  from  these  noble  caballcros. 


266  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

And  now,  we  must  really  be  going,  so  I  will  say 
adieu  ;  but  before  leaving,  I  want  you  all  to  seat 
yourselves  in  a  line  on  this  fallen  tree,  and  look 
up  at  those  rocks  about  sixty  paces  from  you. 
Do  you  see  them?  Well,  I  have  posted  four 
men  behind  them,  all  picked  shots,  with  orders 
to  shoot  the  first  of  you  that  moves  within  the 
next  two  hours.' 

"  I  suggested  that  if  he  would  return  to  me 
the  watch  which  an  hour  ago  was  mine,  we 
should  be  more  likely  to  know  when  the  time 
was  up.  He  looked  affectionately  at  my  gold 
hunter  as  he  replied,  '  I  regret  that  I  cannot 
oblige  you  to  that  extent,  senor.  You  will  have 
to  guess  the  time ;  but  I  advise  you  not  to  be 
too  soon,  because  the  consequences  would  be 
serious.  Good  morning ! '  and  with  a  parting 
bow  and  smile,  our  gentlemanly  bandit  went 
off  in  the  direction  of  the  horses,  followed  by 
his  men,  and  the  whole  party  was  soon  out  of 
sight. 

"  It  was  blowing  a  norther  that  day,  and  an 
icy  wind  was  driving  over  the  snows  of  the 
great  volcano  above  us.  We  felt  half  frozen ; 
yet  there  we  had  to  sit,  in  a  shirtless  condition, 
for  what  seemed  more  like  four  hours  than 
two,   and  I  don't  think   I  have  ever   quite  re- 


Amateur  Bandits.  267 

covered  from  that  chill.  Of  course  no  one 
liked  to  move  first,  for  fear  of  drawing  the  fire  of 
our  unseen  guards  behind  the  rocks ;  but  at  last 
we  ventured  to  return  to  the  coach,  and  when 
we  got  to  Aguas  Frias,  the  breakfast  we  ate, 
at  about  supper-time,  was  really  surprising. 
Before  starting  again  we  managed  to  borrow 
some  clothes  and  blankets,  for  even  down  in 
the  valley  the  night  was  chilly.  Fortified  with 
these  and  inspirited  by  our  meal,  we  drove  off, 
hoping  to  be  at  last  allowed  to  reach  Vera  Cruz 
in  peace.  Our  hopes  soon  proved  to  be  ill- 
founded,  for  about  2  A.M.  we  were  halted  by 
a  shot  being  fired  at  the  coachman,  which 
narrowly  missed  his  nose.  These  new  bandits 
had  an  amateurish  cut,  and  were  very  different 
from  our  high-toned  visitors  of  the  morning. 
They  were  ragged  and  dirty,  and  they  treated 
us  with  no  courtesy  at  all.  When  leaving 
Aguas  Frias,  I  and  my  shirtless  companion  had 
placed  ourselves  next  to  the  windows,  thinking 
that  our  appearance  might  prevent  our  being 
stopped  again,  by  bearing  witness  to  our  poverty. 
But  it  was  in  vain  that  we  now  threw  back  our 
blankets  and  showed  our  unshrouded  forms; 
we  were  ruthlessly  bundled  out  and  stripped  of 
blankets,  boots,  and  indeed  almost  everything 
we  had  left. 


268  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

"  Again  we  pushed  on,  in  shivering  despair. 
It  was  a  bright  night,  so  we  made  good  time, 
and  had  travelled  safely  into  the  fiat  country 
beyond  the  mountains,  when  —  it  is  almost  in- 
credible, but  —  we  were  stopped  for  the  fourth 
time.  We  were  passing  through  endless  miles  of 
chaparral  which  might  have  concealed  an  army 
for  aught  we  knew,  and  to  our  horror  we  saw 
another  band  of  armed  men  gliding  out  of  the 
bushes  upon  us.  Once  more  we  were  searched, 
and  threatened  with  instant  death  unless  we 
handed  over  our  valuables.  We  looked  like  a 
party  of  damaged  Venuses  by  now,  and  our 
condition  spoke  for  itself,  but  I  explained  to 
the  principal  ruffian  of  the  gang  that  we  had 
already  been  stopped  three  times  that  day, 
and,  naturally,  had   nothing  of  value  left. 

"'Holy  Virgin!'  he  exclaimed,  'you  have 
been  attacked  three  times  !  And  pray,  why  did 
you  not  defend  yourselves,  oh  men  without 
shame? ' 

"  Now,  it  was  really  too  much  for  a  ladrone 
engaged  in  robbing  us  himself  to  begin  calling 
us  names  because  we  had  not  defended  our 
property,  in  order  that  he  might  take  it.  I  felt 
that  the  limit  of  endurance  had  been  reached, 
and  I  am  afraid  that  my  reply  was  couched  in 


Corroboration  of  Narrative.  269 

very  strong  language  indeed.  However,  I  sup- 
pose the  gang  thought  that  nothing  could  be 
gained  by  murdering  us,  so  after  a  fruitless 
search,  in  the  hope  that  something  might  have 
been  overlooked,  they  went  off,  swearing  discon- 
tentedly; and  naked,  cold,  and  miserable,  we  at 
last  reached  Vera  Cruz,  after  the  most  unpleas- 
ant journey  I  have  ever  taken." 

When  the  General  finished  his  story,  a  man 
sitting  opposite  to  Jack  said,  "  I  know  that  tale 
of  woe  is  quite  true,  because  I  was  in  garrison  at 
Puebla  at  the  time,  and  we  laughed  ourselves 
hoarse  over  the  General's  adventures  when  we 
heard  of  them  from  the  stage-driver.  But  I  re- 
member even  a  worse  case  than  his.  The  travel- 
lers had  been  treated  in  pretty  much  the  same 
way  as  he,  but  the  coach  arrived  in  the  city 
of  Mexico  in  broad  daylight,  having  amongst  its 
passengers  one  young  lady  simply  and  lightly 
clad  in  a  newspaper.  What's  more,  it  was  not 
so  much  the  costume  that  she  objected  to,  as  the 
fact  that  the  newspaper  had  a  hole  in  it,  and  the 
sun  had  ruined  her  skin  !  " 

"  While  we  are  on  the  subject  of  '  road 
agency,' "  said  another  guest,  "  perhaps  Mr  Jebb, 
as  a  stranger  to  the  ways  of  the  wily  bandit,  might 
like  to   hear  a  rather    funny  experience  I  had 


270  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road!' 

once  in  the  '  good  old  days.'  I  was  going  a 
journey  by  coach,  and  while  on  the  road  we 
heard  that  there  had  just  been  a prommciamento 
at  the  town  we  were  bound  for,  and  that  a  regular 
fight  was  in  progress,  as,  of  course,  the  Govern- 
ment troops  were  trying  to  drive  the  insurgents 
out  of  the  place.  The  report  turned  out  to  be 
quite  true,  for  we  soon  heard  the  booming  of 
artillery.  We  were,  however,  obliged  to  push  on 
in  spite  of  the  disagreeables  which  seemed  to  be 
awaiting  us  at  our  destination.  But  when  we 
were  within  three  miles  of  the  scene  of  opera- 
tions, with  the  town  and  the  smoke  from  its 
guns  in  full  view,  we  were  halted  by  an  advanced 
picket  of  troops.  The  sergeant  in  charge  was 
very  polite,  but  he  said  that  his  orders  were 
imperative  to  allow  no  one  to  pass  on  the  road 
without  first  being  examined  by  the  colonel.  He 
told  us  that  we  should  find  that  officer  in  camp 
about  half  a  mile  up  the  cross-road  where  we 
had  been  stopped.  Of  course  we  had  no  alter- 
native but  to  do  as  we  were  bidden;  so  quitting 
the  coach,  away  we  trudged,  and  a  very  hot  walk 
we  had.  We  could  see  no  trace  of  a  camp  when 
we  came  to  the  end  of  our  stipulated  half-mile; 
so  we  walked  on,  looking  everywhere  for  the 
invisible  colonel,  until,  after  half  a  mile  more, 


Halted  by  a  Picket.  271 

we  realised  that  we  had  been  sold.  Hot,  dusty, 
and  very  ill-tempered,  we  began  our  tramp  back 
to  the  coach,  to  find,  when  we  reached  it,  the 
sergeant's  squad  coolly  plundering  our  baggage. 
Two  of  them  covered  us  with  their  rifles  while 
the  rest  possessed  themselves  of  such  of  our 
belongings  as  were  light  and  portable.  Then 
they  rode  off;  but  before  leaving  they  carefully 
cut  our  harness,  so  that  it  was  a  good  hour  before 
we  could  repair  damages  and  proceed  on  our 
way.  On  reaching  the  town  we  went  straight  to 
the  general  commanding  the  Government  forces, 
to  complain  that  we  had  been  robbed  by  a  picket 
of  his  soldiers  less  than  three  miles  from  the  town. 
I  shall  never  forget  his  indignation. 

"  '  My  troops  rob  you  !  '  he  exclaimed  angrily. 
'  You  are  either  making  a  mistake  through  sheer 
ignorance,  or  you  are  trying  to  insult  the  Gov- 
ernment in  my  person.' 

"  With  some  difficulty  we  induced  him  to  listen 
to  our  explanation,  that  the  robbers  had  said 
they  belonged  to  his  regiment;  and,  moreover, 
the  uniforms  they  wore  were  assuredly  the  same 
as  those  we  now  saw  about  us.  At  this  juncture, 
I  regret  to  say,  the  general  swore. 

" '  I  see  it  all  now,'  he  said  ;  'you  have  been 
molested   by  those  ladroncs  who   are  trying  to 


272  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

hold  our  own  city  against  us.  Their  uniforms 
are  the  same  —  in  fact,  two  of  the  rebel  regi- 
ments were  in  my  command  until  last  week. 
But  I'll  soon  settle  this  matter !  ' 

"  He  showed  a  white  flag,  and  sounded  a 
parley.  Within  a  few  minutes  an  officer  came 
out  from  the  rebel  ranks  to  confer  with  the  irate 
general,  who  told  him  our  story  with  many  ex- 
pletives, expatiating  fully  on  the  disgrace  to  the 
country  of  peaceable  travellers  being  robbed  by 
troops  who,  since  they  were  certainly  not  his, 
must  belong  to  the  insurgent  force  !  The  rebel 
officer  was  furious,  and  accused  the  Government 
forces  of  doing  habitually  what  the  high-souled 
patriots  he  had  the  honour  to  command  would 
not  dream  of  when  drunk!  Of  course  the  gen- 
eral retaliated  with  personalities  about  the  insur- 
gents and  all  their  ancestors,  and  the  discussion 
waxed  hot ;  but  at  last  some  one  had  the  presence 
of  mind  to  suggest  that  while  time  was  being 
wasted  here,  the  thieves  were  getting  comfort- 
ably away.  This  brought  the  angry  warriors  to 
terms,  and  they  decided  upon  declaring  a  short 
truce.  As  the  besiegers  had  but  little  cavalry, 
the  besieged  kindly  lent  a  troop,  and  we  soon 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  a  party  composed  of 
men  who  had  been  gaily  potting  at  each  other 


A    War- Interlude.  273 

an  hour  before,  starting  off  together  quite  ami- 
cably to  scour  the  adjacent  country  for  bandits. 

"  The  chase  was  a  hot  one  while  it  lasted,  but 
in  a  very  short  time  the  soldiers  returned  trium- 
phantly with  their  late  comrades  in  tow.  Within 
half  an  hour  the  ladroues  had  been  tried  by 
court-martial  and  hanged !  They  should  have 
been  shot,  only  neither  of  the  belligerent  officers 
wished  to  waste  ammunition  upon  them.  As  soon 
as  this  little  piece  of  business  was  despatched, 
the  truce  was  declared  over,  and  in  a  very  few 
moments  the  rattle  of  musketry  could  be  heard 
as  the  rival  armies  recommenced  hostilities.  As 
our  belongings  were  all  restored  to  us,  I  think 
both  myself  and  my  fellow-passengers  rather  en- 
joyed this  little  comic  opera  interlude  to  a  serious 
battle.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  our  friend  the  gen- 
eral conquered,  and  I  am  still  more  thankful  to 
be  able  to  make  my  journeys  by  rail  nowadays." 

Needless  to  say  that  every  one  at  table  agreed 
in  the  last  sentiment,  and  they  rose  with  a  laugh 
and  an  expression  of  curiosity  as  to  what  had 
become  of  the  old  professional  bandit  —  such  of 
him  as  was  not  pressed  into  the  army.  Jack  was 
rather  inclined  to  think  that  he  might  be  em- 
ployed chiefly  in  selling  mines  to  the  unwary 
British  investor,  or,  better  still,  acting  as  confi- 

iS 


274  Tlie  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

dential  cashier  in  the  office  of  the  said  Britisher 
—  at  least  those  were  the  only  capacities  in  which 
he  had  encountered  bandits  himself  during  his 
stay  in  the  country  !  A  short  time  after  the  visit 
during  which  he  heard  (and  made  notes  of) 
the  foregoing  stories,  he  happened  to  be  passing 
through  a  little  village,  where,  to  about  a  dozen 
huts,  he  counted  no  fewer  than  fourteen  churches  ! 
On  inquiry  he  found  that  the  latter  had  all  been 
built  by  repentant  robber  chiefs  who  had  retired 
from  business  with  large  fortunes,  and  who, 
having  got  all  they  could  out  of  this  world, 
thought  it  was  time  to  begin  to  treat  for  a  good 
place  in  the  next ! 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  during  the  first 
five  years  he  spent  in  Mexico  Mr  Jebb  fre- 
quently went  backwards  and  forwards  between 
Vera  Cruz  and  England,  but  it  has  not  been 
recorded  that  while  on  one  of  his  short  visits 
to  London  he  was  present  at  the  deathbed  of 
his  only  remaining  aunt.  In  many  wrays  she 
had  acted  the  part  of  a  mother  to  him,  and  he 
regarded  her  house  as  home  —  the  only  one 
he  possessed  ;  so  that  he  felt  her  loss  severely, 
and  was  only  comforted  by  the  thought  that  at 
least  he  had  been  with  her  at  the  last,  instead 
of  being    thousands    of   miles    away,  as  in   his 


An  Original  Honeymoon.  275 

roving  life  might  easily  have  happened.  She 
left  him  a  few  thousand  pounds,  but  nothing 
approaching  the  fortune  he  had  been  led  to 
expect.  The  reason  was  not  far  to  seek.  In 
common  with  many  wealthy  elderly  ladies,  she 
was  very  amenable  to  flattery,  and  of  course 
was  always  able  to  command  as  much  as  she 
was  prepared  to  swallow ;  while  no  hope  of 
future  riches  could  have  induced  Jack  to  be- 
stow upon  her  the  smallest  quantity  of  that 
pabulum,  without  which  even  her,  doubtless 
sincere,  affection  for  him  languished. 

Strange  to  say,  it  was  again  at  her  house  that 
he  met  the  lady  who  was  to  be  his  second  wife. 
They  were  mutually  attracted  at  their  first  meet- 
ing; but  for  various  reasons,  chiefly  financial, 
the  marriage  did  not  take  place  till  nearly  five 
years  afterwards.  When  it  did,  it  was  a  suffi- 
ciently happy  one  to  compensate  for  the  busi- 
ness troubles  which,  not  many  years  later, 
began  to  gather  thick  and  fast.  But  even  that 
leveller  of  persons,  matrimony,  could  not  suc- 
ceed in  turning  Jack  Jebb  into  a  respectable 
stay-at-home  Benedict,  journeying  only  between 
his  club  and  the  domestic  hearth.  On  the 
contrary,  after  probably  the  briefest  and  most 
original  honeymoon  on  record  —  it   was    spent 


276  The  "  Knights  of  the  Road." 

chiefly  in  cabs — he  had  to  rush  suddenly 
back  to  Mexico,  leaving  his  wife  to  follow  as 
soon  as  she  could  gather  together  her  posses- 
sions. When  at  last  she  rejoined  him  there, 
they  remained  in  Mexico  for  several  years,  save 
for  occasional  trips  to  Cuba  or  New  York. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

SEARCH   FOR   TREASURE. 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  MINING  CONCERN  —  JEBB'S  LARGE 
CIRCLE  OF  ACQUAINTANCES  —  A  VARIETY  OF  BUSINESS  PRO- 
POSALS  THE    HIDDEN    TREASURE  OF  GUATAMOC AN    OLD 

CHIEF'S    SECRET A    FURTHER    STORY  OF    BURIED  MILLIONS 

A    PADRE'S   VIGILANCE  THE    HIDING-PLACE    OF    MONTE- 

ZUMA'S      TREASURE    —  VIGOROUS      EXPLORATIONS  INTER- 
ESTING    FINDS  THE      TOTEM-MARK      OF      GUATAMOC  —  AN 

UNDERGROUND  PASSAGE PROCEEDINGS  ABRUPTLY  STOPPED 

LINGERING    BELIEF    IN    THE   EXISTENCE  OF  MONTEZIM  A  S 

TREASURE. 

During  this  stay  in  England,  Jack  had  of  course 
devoted  most  of  his  time  to  the  company  he 
represented,  and  which  he  had  been  chiefly 
instrumental  in  founding.  So  far,  it  was  not  a 
success.  The  mines  required  far  more  develop- 
ment than  had  been  anticipated,  and  even  when 
ore  began  to  be  taken  out,  it  was  of  too  low  a 
grade  to  pay,  unless  it  could  be  mined  on  a 
much  larger  scale  than  the  resources  of  the 
company  would  admit.  This  being  the  case, 
that  unfailing  panacea  for  moribund  concerns  — 
reconstruction  —  was  applied,  and  when  Mr 
Jebb  returned  to  Mexico  it  was  with  an  enlarged 


278  Search  for  Treasure. 

scope  of  operations,  and  with  instructions  to 
treat  for  other  business.  By  this  time  he  had  a 
large  and  particularly  mixed  circle  of  acquaint- 
ance in  the  land  of  Montezuma,  consisting  of 
Government  officials,  great  kaciendados,  busi- 
ness men,  adventurers,  Indian  tribes,  and  Cuban 
refugees.  He  probably  also  knew,  and  had 
been  taken  in  by,  every  curiosity-dealer  in  the 
country.  Therefore,  when  he  made  it  known 
that  he  was  open  to  receive  offers  of  business, 
to  be  carried  through  by  his  company  in 
London,  practicable  and  impracticable  schemes 
poured  in  upon   him. 

Among  the  former  was  the  loan  for  the  great 
drainage-works  begun  by  Montezuma,  continued 
at  intervals  by  the  Spanish  Viceroys,  and  des- 
tined to  be  completed  by  President  Diaz.  As 
for  the  impossible  plans,  their  name  was  legion ; 
and  they  ranged  from  a  request  to  buy  up  a 
volcano  in  order  to  dig  for  sulphur  inside  it,  to 
an  invitation  to  join  in  a  search  for  the  hidden 
treasure  of  Guatamoc !  There  was,  perhaps, 
some  temptation  to  take  up  the  latter  enterprise, 
for  while  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  both  of 
the  last  Aztec  Emperors  of  Mexico  had  enor- 
mous stores  of  gold  and  gems,  it  is  equally 
certain  that  but  a  comparatively  small  portion 


Indian  Secrets.  279 

ever  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards,  in  spite 
of  the  nameless  tortures  they  inflicted  on  all 
who  might  be  supposed  to  know  the  secrets  of 
the  murdered  princes.  No  one  who  is  in  the 
least  acquainted  with  Indian  nature  can  doubt 
for  a  moment  that  whatever  traditions  of  this 
sort  existed  in  the  time  of  Cortez,  will  have 
been  carefully  handed  down  to  the  present  day, 
in  the  tribes  whose  forefathers  suffered  death 
rather  than  reveal  aught  to  their  taskmasters. 

Through  some  small  service  which  he  once 
rendered  to  an  old  Indian,  Jack  came  very  near 
to  finding  out  one  of  these  secrets.  The  man 
was  as  ragged  and  dirty  as  the  rest  of  the  peons 
who  swarm  in  the  streets  of  Mexico;  but  in 
spite  of  this,  in  the  little  hamlet,  a  few  leagues 
off,  where  he  lived,  there  were  days  of  the  year 
on  which  he  received  regal  homage  from  his 
tribe.  No  Spaniard  or  Mexican  would  ever 
have  been  permitted  to  discover  as  much  ;  but 
Jack,  as  an  Englishman  known  by  the  natives 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  them,  from  time  to  time 
was  told  strange  things.  The  particular  Indian 
in  question  was  the  last  descendant  x>f  the  petty 
king  or  cacique  who  had  reigned  in  his  district 
for  untold  generations  before  the  coming  of 
Cortez,  and  for  some  reason  which  for  a  long 


2  So  Search  for  Treasure. 

while  the  man  refused  to  state,  he  was  anxious 
to  raise  a  large  sum  of  money,  to  be  returned  to 
the  lender  at  the  end  of  one  month.  With 
much  difficulty  Jack  at  last  found  out  that  the 
money,  if  forthcoming,  was  to  be  used  for  the 
purchase  of  a  block  of  land  in  the  suburbs, 
about  to  be  sold  for  building  purposes.  What 
was  to  be  done  with  the  ground  when  it  was 
acquired  he  could  not  guess,  and  all  his  re- 
presentations of  the  impossibility  of  raising  funds 
without  fuller  information  were  useless  for  more 
than  a  year  after  the  first  application  had  been 
made  to  him.  Then,  looking  very  worn  and  ill, 
the  old  chief  paid  him  a  visit.  He  began  by  one 
more  attempt  to  get  the  loan,  on  his  own  terms. 
Finding  that  hopeless,  he  proposed  that  Jack 
should  buy  one  building  lot,  to  be  pointed  out 
by  him,  on  the  land  in  question,  and  he  promised 
that  within  a  month  he  would  pay  $  100,000  for 
it.  By  that  time  Jack  was  really  interested  in 
the  old  man's  persistence,  and  if  he  had  pos- 
sessed the  required  sum  he  would  probably  have 
bought  the  ground  in  order  to  see  what  hap- 
pened. But  as  he  could  not  spare  the  money 
from  his  own  resources,  and  as  even  the  long- 
suffering  British  shareholder  would  kick  at  an 
investment  which  depended  solely  for  success  on 


Good  Cause  f 07-  Land  Purchase.        281 

the  word  of  an  unwashed  Aztec,  he  was  obliged 
to  send  his  visitor  away  terribly  disappointed. 

For  a  long  time  no  more  was  seen  of  him ; 
then  a  message  came  that  he  was  dying,  and  had 
expressed  a  wish  to  bid  farewell  to  el  Iuglese. 
Jack,  of  course,  obeyed  the  summons  at  once, 
to  find  that  it  had  not  come  a  moment  too  soon, 
for  the  old  chief's  last  fight  was  almost  over! 
His  eyes  were  glassy,  and  his  voice  but  a  broken 
whisper,  which  could  scarcely  be  heard  through 
the  sound  of  the  night  wind  eddying  round  the 
hut;  but  he  found  strength  to  motion  away  a 
group  of  women  who  stood  around  him,  and 
then  telling  Jack  to  stand  nearer  the  bed,  he  at 
last  confessed  his  reason  for  so  urgently  desir- 
ing that  piece  of  ground.  He  said  that  beneath 
it  was  buried  a  rich  treasure,  and  that  he  alone 
—  the  last  descendant  of  a  line  of  kings  —  knew 
the  exact  spot.  The  land  had  never  before  been 
for  sale,  nor  would  he  have  disclosed  its  secret 
if  it  had ;  but  the  Englishman  had  been  kind  to 
him,  and  he  wanted  him  to  know  that  there 
had  been  good  cause  for  his  apparently  insane 
request.  Jack  urged  the  dying  man  to  describe 
the  hiding-place  even  now,  promising  to  do  his 
best,  should  any  treasure  be  found,  to  get  it  dis- 
posed of  as  the  cacique  might  direct.    The  latter 


282  Search  for  Treasure. 

seemed  to  meditate  for  a  few  moments,  then  he 
said,  "I  think  you  are  an  honest  man,  seilor; 
but  you  have  none  of  our  blood  in  your  veins, 
and  if  I  told  you,  it  might  be  that  the  Govern- 
ment —  or  the  Spaniards !    No ;    I   am  the 

last  of  my  race,  and  I  too  shall  soon  be  with  my 
fathers.  Who  knows  that  they  will  not  ask  the 
king's  treasure  at  my  hands?  It  shall  rest  for 
ever  where  it  is !  "  And  the  grim  old  heathen 
died,  and  carried  his  secret  with  him  to  the 
grave.  The  suburb  was  soon  built  over,  none 
guessing  that  somewhere  in  those  fifty  acres 
half  a  million  lay  hid. 

There  is  yet  another  story  of  buried  millions 
in  which  Jack's  participation  was  desired  to  the 
extent  of  gaining  permission  from  the  owner  of 
the  property  to  dig  on  his  land,  ostensibly  for 
curiosities  said  to  be  hidden  there.  The  sug- 
gestion was  made  in  perfect  good  faith  by  a 
Cuban,  called  Don  Anselmo,  who  himself  came 
across  the  secret  in  a  rather  odd  manner.  He 
was  much  given  to  dabbling  in  chemistry,  and 
happening  one  day  to  require  for  some  experi- 
ments a  certain  vegetable  acid  very  difficult  to 
procure,  he  went  out  on  a  hill,  where  he  thought 
it  might  be  possible  to  find  a  certain  plant  which 
would  answer  his  purpose.     While  engaged   in 


Interrupted  by  the  Padre.  283 

the  search  he  became  interested  in  the  geology 
of  the  hill,  and  went  contentedly  tapping  and 
prowling  about  for  several  hours.  At  last  he 
observed  that  wherever  he  moved  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  some  man  who,  while  keeping  care- 
fully in  concealment  himself,  was  noting  every 
action  of  the  amateur  geologist.  The  latter  en- 
dured this  unaccountable  espionage  for  some 
time,  but  finding  that  it  seemed  likely  to  con- 
tinue, he  got  rather  irritated,  and  shouted  to  the 
spy  that  it  would  be  well  for  him  either  to  go 
away  or  to  show  himself! 

This  had  the  desired  effect,  for  some  one 
crawled  out  of  a  tuna-hush,  who,  to  the  intense 
amazement  of  our  friend  the  Cuban,  proved  to 
be  no  other  than  the  yillage  padre,  who  was  an 
old  acquaintance.  The  padre's  face  was  full  of 
rage  and  suspicion  as  he  asked  roughly  what 
was  the  object  of  all  this  digging  and  tapping 
about  a  hill  which  was  well  known  to  be  private 
property?  The  answer  that  nothing  more  seri- 
ous than  a  search  for  rare  herbs  was  in  progress, 
seemed  to  infuriate  the  amiable  old  gentleman 
still  more.  "  It's  no  use  trying  to  deceive  me," 
he  said,  roughly.  "  The  saints  alone  know  how 
you  have  got  hold  of  a  secret  which  I  thought 
was  known  to  none  but  myself;   but  it  is  quite 


284  Search  for  Treasure. 

evident  that  you  do  know  it,  although  you  are 
not  quite  certain  of  the  locality." 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  other  protested  his 
entire  ignorance  of  what  could  be  meant;  the 
priest  only  became  more  incredulous.  "  I  was 
watching  you  for  an  hour  before  you  saw  me," 
he  said,  "  and  you  never  went  a  yard  from  the 
spot.  You  even  tapped  about  the  two  trees 
which  were  planted  to  mark  it.  Herbs  indeed  !  " 
Seeing  the  uselessness  of  further  argument  with 
the  obstinate  padre,  his  puzzled  listener  let  him 
talk  on,  and  he  proceeded  to  give  himself  grace- 
fully away!  It  appeared  that  the  secret  which 
he  was  so  positive  had  been  surprised,  referred 
to  a  portion  of  the  hidden  treasure  of  Monte- 
zuma —  that  which  had  been  cast  away  in  despair 
by  the  flying  Spaniards  during  the  massacre  of 
the  noche  triste,  to  be  carefully  gathered  together 
again  by  the  devoted  Aztecs,  and  buried  securely 
where  there  was  little  chance  of  its  ever  being 
discovered  by  their  enemies.  The  secret  had 
been  kept  for  over  three  hundred  and  sixty 
years ;  for,  with  the  undying  hatred  of  the  race 
for  their  conquerors,  no  Indian  would  reveal 
it  in  the  hope  of  gain  to  himself,  lest  by  misad- 
venture any  portion  of  the  hidden  riches  should 
fall  into  Spanish  hands. 


PLuis  and  Inventory.  285 

At  last  a  dying  cacique,  before  receiving  abso- 
lution from  the  priest,  said  that  he  must  confess 
something  which  had  long  weighed  upon  his 
mind.  He  was  the  last  of  his  race,  and  had  no 
kith  or  kin  in  whom  to  confide,  or  it  is  doubtful 
whether  even  at  the  supreme  moment  he  would 
have  admitted  the  padre  to  his  confidence.  In 
hushed  tones  he  confessed  that  he  knew  the 
exact  hiding-place  of  Montezuma's  treasure,  and 
that  he,  the  last  descendant  of  the  royal  line, 
was  the  only  living  soul  who  held  the  secret. 
On  condition  that  it  should  never  be  given  up 
to  the  Government,  or  to  any  member  of  the 
nation  he  abhorred,  he  told  the  priest  where  he 
would  find  plans  of  the  burying-place,  and  an 
inventory  of  the  wealth  stored  therein.  So 
much  of  the  old  man's  statement  proved  to  be 
true,  that  after  his  death,  carefully  concealed  in 
his  hut,  were  found  measurements  impossible  to 
mistake,  while  the  inventory,  if  a  genuine  one, 
promised  a  treasure  well  worth  winning.  It 
mentioned  eighteen  large  jars  of  gold,  some 
filled  with  golden  ornaments,  and  some  with 
gold-dust  from  the  lost  mines  of  the"  south.  It 
also  spoke  of  other  jars  filled  with  precious 
stones ;  of  ancient  gods ;  of  arms  and  shields 
innumerable;  while  above  all  in  value  was  the 
Golden  Head  of  Montezuma! 


286  Search  for  Treasure. 

These  circumstantial  details  began  to  make 
the  priest  believe  in  a  story  to  which  at  first  he 
had  attached  but  slight  credence ;  still  even  sup- 
posing it  to  be  all  true,  he  did  not  see  how  to 
make  use  of  his  information,  because,  according 
to  the  plans,  these  riches  were  buried  sixty  feet 
deep  on  what  was  now  private  property,  the  owner 
of  which  was  quite  the  last  person  in  the  world  to 
allow  excavations  to  be  made  on  his  land  with- 
out very  good  reason.  If  he  were  taken  into 
confidence,  of  course  he  would  dig  himself,  and 
as  he  was  a  Liberal  with  no  respect  for  the 
Church,  he  would  take  great  care  that  the 
padre  was  no  better  for  the  find.  Therefore 
that  holy  man  had  been  constrained  to  keep  his 
own  counsel,  until  the  day  when  he  saw  our 
friend  hovering  affectionately  over  the  very 
spot. 

When  the  latter  understood  the  state  of 
affairs,  he  was  careful  not  to  betray  how  abso- 
lutely ignorant  of  it  all  he  had  been,  and  after 
some  little  discussion  he  suggested  that  the  best 
plan  for  securing  the  treasure  would  be  to  buy 
the  land,  and  then  give  out  that  it  was  to  be 
prospected  for  sulphur,  in  order  to  account  for 
the  extensive  pit  which  would  have  to  be  dug. 
Of  course,  this  scheme  entailed  letting  one  or 


Don  Ansclmo's  Proposal.  287 

two  others  into  the  secret,  but  it  would  be  to 
their  interest  to  keep  it,  while  if  the  list  were 
true  there  was  wealth  enough  for  a  hundred 
people.  The  padre  having  assented  to  these 
suggestions,  his  friend  Don  Anselmo  began  to 
try  to  raise  the  necessary  money  for  the  pur- 
chase among  his  acquaintances.  Finding  that 
though  he  could  get  a  few  private  subscriptions, 
treasure-hunting  was  not  considered  a  sufficiently 
steady  business  to  induce  any  capitalist  to  em- 
bark in  it,  he  had  to  give  up  his  idea  in  despair; 
but  nothing  daunted,  he  soon  formulated  another. 
He  asked  the  people  to  whom  he  had  applied 
for  the  slight  loan  of  $200,000,  whether,  if  they 
would  not  give  him  the  money  he  required,  they 
would  at  least  help  him  to  dig  on  the  land  if  he 
got  leave  to  do  so  without  purchasing  it?  This 
promised  sport,  and  they  willingly  agreed.  Don 
Anselmo  thereupon  repaired  to  the  owner  of 
the  property,  and  told  him  that  in  the  course  of 
some  geological  researches  traces  of  sulphur 
had  been  found  on  his  ground,  which  naturally 
would  greatly  increase  its  value.  When,  there- 
fore, Don  Anselmo  proceeded  kindly- to  offer  to 
excavate  gratuitously  himself,  in  the  interests  of 
science,  the  gratitude  of  the  owner  knew  no 
bounds,  and  he  gave  leave  for  the  entire  estate 
to  be  dug  over  if  necessary  ! 


288  Search  for  Treasure. 

The  confederates  therefore  soon  set  to  work, 
the  padre's  share  in  the  proceedings  being  to 
tear  backwards  and  forwards  between  the  pit 
and  the  village,  telling  his  parishioners  that  the 
hereticos  were  digging  for  sulphur,  which,  as  it 
belonged  to  the  devil,  would  most  assuredly 
cause  that  gentleman  to  seize  any  of  the  faithful 
who  went  near  the  sacrilegious  party.  This  was 
an  ingenious  and  successful  plan  for  keeping  the 
coast  clear,  for  which  the  padre  received  much 
credit.  None  of  the  workers  being  "to  the 
manner  born,"  it  took  them  a  fortnight  to  sink 
that  sixty-foot  shaft,  and  as  they  reached  the 
bottom  the  excitement  became  intense.  The 
plans  said  that  at  a  depth  of  sixty  feet  would  be 
found  a  big  boulder  covered  with  hieroglyphics  ; 
and  sure  enough,  as  they  anxiously  scraped  away 
loose  soil,  they  saw  deeply  cut  in  the  face  of  a 
large  rock  the  figure  of  an  owl  —  the  totem-mark 
of  Guatamoc. 

But  now  began  misfortunes.  The  owner,  see- 
ing the  huge  pit  that  had  been  dug  without  any 
sulphur  being  discovered,  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  all  a  mare's  nest;  but  as  he  had  long 
been  contemplating  the  sale  of  his  property,  he 
thought  this  was  the  best  time  to  do  so,  as,  of 
course,  the  rumour  of  sulphur  upon   it  would 


Passage  into  the  Hillside.  289 

help  greatly  in  selling  the  land.  Owing  to  this 
piece  of  financial  genius,  the  ardent  diggers  were 
horrified,  the  morning  after  their  great  discovery, 
to  learn  that  the  estate  had  just  been  sold  for  a 
large  sum  to  a  man  from  whom  they  knew  they 
might  expect  no  mercy  if  he  once  discovered 
their  secret.  All  that  day  they  worked  hard  at 
driving  a  hole  into  the  big  stone,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  lead  into  the  treasure-chamber.  Late 
at  night  they  put  in  a  charge  of  dynamite  which 
shattered  the  rock  to  fragments,  but  it  also 
caused  so  much  earth  to  fall  in  that  another  day 
was  lost  in  clearing  it  all  out  again.  As  the  last 
heap  of  rubbish  was  removed,  the  opening  of  a 
tunnel  came  into  view,  running  straight  into  the 
hillside  at  right  angles  to  the  shaft.  Curiously 
enough,  the  walls  seemed  to  be  fused,  and  they 
had  evidently  been  subjected  to  great  heat.  For 
some  ten  paces  the  tunnel  ran  in  on  the  level; 
then  came  a  flight  of  steps  leading  upwards.  On 
the  third  step  was  a  copper  spear-head,  and  at 
the  top  of  the  flight  the  adventurers  were  con- 
fronted by  a  solid-built  wall,  as  hard  as  flint,  and 
fused  smooth  as  glass !  It  looked  as  though 
another  week's  work  was  before  them.  Their 
tools  were  blunted,  and  worst  of  all,  their  time 
expired  that  night.  They  knew  that  even  could 
19 


290  Search  for  Treasure. 

they  pick  through  the  wall,  it  would  take  days 
to  remove  the  treasure,  while  long  ere  they 
could  do  so  the  new  owner  would  have  heard 
of  the  operations,  and  not  only  would  they  have 
gone  to  prison,  which  would  have  been  dis- 
agreeable, but  every  onza  of  the  gold  would 
be  promptly  appropriated — a  disaster  too 
terrible   to  contemplate ! 

So,  after  some  consultation,  they  resolved  to 
abandon  the  work  until  such  time  as  they  could 
make  fresh  arrangements  with  the  new  owner; 
or,  better  still,  find  some  one  whose  faith  and 
purse  were  proportionately  large,  to  buy  the 
property  on  the  strength  of  the  thrilling  addi- 
tions they  could  now  make  to  their  former 
shadowy  "  prospectus."  Accordingly,  all  that 
night  and  most  of  the  next  day  they  worked  at 
filling  up  the  shaft  again,  throwing  down  it  the 
two  trees  which  had  served  as  landmarks ;  and 
having  finished  this,  they  left  the  place,  saying 
that  they  had  not  been  able  to  find  any  sulphur 
—  which,  of  all  their  explanations,  appears  to 
have  been  the  only  true  one.  The  next  Sunday 
the  padre  mentioned  incidentally  in  the  course 
of  his  sermon  that  during  their  excavations  the 
hereticos  had  let  out.  some  of  the  diablos  who 
haunt  underground  regions,  and  that  therefore 


Fate  Unpropitions.  291 

it  would  be  well  for  his  flock  to  avoid  the  dis- 
turbed spot.  Needless  to  say  that  the  said 
flock  was  very  careful  to  keep  near  the  fold 
ever  afterwards.  The  new  owner,  a  former 
member  of  the  Government,  and  a  most  un- 
scrupulous man,  proved  to  be  quite  impracti- 
cable, so  did  various  schemes  for  buying  him 
out,  and  thus  the  matter  rested,  until,  as  a  last 
resource,  Don  Anselmo  went  to  Jack  Jebb  with 
the  foregoing  story. 

The  latter  agreed  to  obtain  permission  to 
excavate,  which  he  could  the  more  readily  do 
as  his  taste  for  curiosities  was  well  known,  and 
his  request  would  fail  therefore  to  lay  him  open 
to  the  suspicion  which  would  have  attended 
a  similar  demand  from  Don  Anselmo.  The 
application  was  successful ;  but,  in  spite  of  his 
satisfaction  at  this  result,  the  Cuban  seemed  to 
be  a  little  startled  when  he  found  that  Jack  pro- 
posed being  accompanied  on  the  expedition  by 
an  Englishman  then  visiting  at  his  house.  Still, 
all  went  well  until  the  day  previous  to  that  fixed 
for  the  journey.  Then  a  cablegram  from  Eng- 
land arrived,  bringing  news  so  disastrous  to  his 
guest  that  Jack  at  once  postponed  their  share 
of  the  projected  search.  Not  caring  to  venture 
alone,  Don  Anselmo  agreed  to  wait  until  a  more 


292  Search  for  Treasure. 

propitious  season ;  but  fate  was  against  the  re- 
covery of  the  buried  wealth,  for  a  few  weeks 
later  Jack  was  obliged  to  return  to  England 
without  having  found  another  opportunity  to 
join  in  the  quest.  When  in  a  year's  time  he 
returned  once  more  to  Mexico,  Don  Anselmo 
had  disappeared.  No  one  had  heard  of  his 
death,  or  of  his  having  left  the  country,  and  to 
no  man  had  he  said  farewell.  But  his  place 
knew  him  no  more,  though  whence  he  had 
departed  in  so  strange  and  silent  a  fashion  was 
a  mystery  to  all. 

It  is  possible  that  the  Indian  tribe  had  in  some 
way  discovered  his  knowledge  of  their  dead 
chief's  secret,  and  to  ensure  his  safe  keeping  of 
the  matter  had  quietly  murdered  him.  Such 
things  have  been  ;  and  at  all  events  he  was  gone, 
and  the  gold  is  still  a  Jiidden  treasure  —  for  the 
secret  has  been  well  kept.  Probably  it  will 
never  be  divulged,  for  those  who  find  the  stores 
of  gold  and  gems  will  scarcely  bruit  abroad  the 
story  of  their  success ;  but  that  a  large  portion 
of  the  countless  wealth  of  Montezuma  exists  in 
the  place  described,  one  or  two  people  will 
always  believe. 

A  former  treasure-hunt  in  Central  America 
Jack  himself  has  told  in  'another  place,  and  it 


Hidden  Riches.  293 

need  not  be  repeated  here.1  But  even  Mr 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  has  not  imagined  the 
veritable  riches  which  in  remote  corners  of  the 
earth  yet  lie  hid  ! 

1  "  The  Lost   Secret   of   the  Cocos  Group."     See  '  Black- 
wood's Magazine  '  for  January  1873. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

FRESH    FIELDS. 

A    NEW  GOLDMINE AN     UNTRUSTWORTHY    ADVISER SEIZED 

WITH    SERIOUS    ILLNESS  —  TRIES    THE    SULPHUR     BATHS     AT 

PUEBLA THE       MANUFACTURE       OF      ANTIQUITIES  —  THE 

BANDITS    OF    MALINCHE  —  A    YANKEE    DRUMMER'S    PROWESS 

—  THE     PYRAMID      AT       CHOLULA  —  RETURN      TO    WORK 

NEGOTIATES  A  MINING  PROPERTY  IN  THE  STATE  OF  CHIAPAS 
— AN  UNPLEASANT  JOURNEY INSECT  PESTS  WONDER- 
FUL RELICS  OF  A  BYGONE   CIVILISATION  A  SACRED  SNAKE 

DISTRESS    OF      A    BRITISH     TOURIST ON    THE     LOOK-OUT 

FOR  ANTIQUITIES THE  INGENUOUS  AMERICAN  TOURIST. 

Amid  a  press  of  serious  work,  the  next  unprofit- 
able affair  in  which  Jack  was  concerned  was  a 
vigorous  search  for  a  non-existent  mine.  A 
Cuban  of  his  acquaintance  came  to  him  one 
day  with  a  long  story  about  a  gold-mine  he  had 
accidentally  discovered  on  the  hacienda  of  a 
mutual  friend,  and  he  gave  so  many  circumstan- 
tial details  that  the  matter  seemed  worth  looking 
into,  especially  as  the  hacienda  was  considered 
one  of  the  best  in  Mexico,  and  would  therefore 
compensate  for  the  day's  journey  to  it,  even  if 
nothing  further  transpired.  It  was  situated  in 
the  hot  country ;   and  when  Jack  and  his  com- 


A  New  Gold-Mine.  295 

panion  and  guide  first  caught  sight  of  it,  the 
former  at  least  thought  he  had  never  seen  any- 
thing so  gorgeous  as  its  fertile  beauty.  The 
old  grey  house  was  surrounded  by  acres  of 
orange-trees,  with  every  path  through  them 
lined  with  leafy  bananas,  while  a  clearing  in 
front  was  overgrown  with  tall,  sweet-scented 
flowers.  Through  the  entire  grounds  wandered 
streams  of  clear  water,  giving  a  fresh  appearance 
to  the  vegetation  seldom  seen  in  the  tropics. 
From  the  fiat  roof  of  the  hacienda  there  was  a 
view  for  a  painter  to  dream  of —  miles  of  rich 
land  covered  with  sugar-cane,  walled  in  by  pine- 
clad  hills ;  while  far  above  them  all  towered  the 
stately  white  cone  of  Popocatepetl. 

The  travellers  arrived  too  late  to  do  anything 
on  the  first  day;  and  after  the  long,  hot  ride  to 
the  place,  they  found  half  an  hour's  communion 
with  a  cool  creek,  supper,  and  bed  most  refresh- 
ing. Next  morning,  however,  they  were  up  early 
in  order  to  have  time  to  examine  the  mine  be- 
fore the  midday  heat  set  in,  when,  according  to 
a  Mexican  saying,  "  none  but  dogs  and  English- 
men go  out."  They  went  first  to  the  place 
where  the  Cuban  said  he  had  made  his  dis- 
covery, searching  carefully  for  the  opening, 
while   he  explained  at    length    his   reasons    for 


296  Fresh  Fields. 

feeling  sure  that  the  mine  was  an  old  one  which 
had  been  worked  and  then  abandoned  by  the 
Spaniards,  in  accordance  with  their  usual  cus- 
tom when  they  had  taken  out  the  richest  of  the 
ore.  He  talked  so  much  and  so  graphically 
about  his  find,  that  Jack  scarcely  liked  at  first 
to  point  out  the  obvious  fact  that  he  seemed  a 
little  vague  as  to  its  locality,  for  the  most  minute 
search  of  the  ground  he  indicated  failed  to  show 
anything  which  by  any  stretch  of  imagination 
could  be  taken  for  a  mine. 

He  appeared  at  last  to  awake  to  this  fact  him- 
self, and  began  making  investigations  a  little 
farther  afield  —  with  the  same  lack  of  result; 
until,  late  in  the  afternoon,  hot,  tired,  and  on  the 
verge  of  sun-stroke,  Jack  declined  to  go  another 
step,  and  added  that  he  did  not  believe  there  had 
ever  been  any  mine,  as  it  is  not  a  sort  of  thing 
you  can  easily  mislay!  The  Cuban  protested 
that  he  had  seen  it ;  but  whether  he  was  mad, 
or  whether  he  was  playing  a  bad  practical  joke 
from  which  he  suffered  equally  with  his  victim, 
it  is  impossible  to  say.  Jack  inclined  to  the 
former  opinion,  which  may  be  considered  chari- 
table of  him,  as  he  went  back  to  Mexico  in  a 
very  bad  temper,  with  a  scorpion  in  his  portman- 
teau.    Moreover,  from  being  out  in  the  sun  all 


Sulphur  Baths  at  Pucbla.  297 

day  he  contracted  a  bad  attack  of  fever ;  and  be- 
sides, he  must  have  been  near  some  of  the 
"  poison  ivy,"  which  makes  life  a  burden  in  the 
California  foot-hills,  for  he  was  poisoned  from 
head  to  foot.  He  was  seriously  ill  for  weeks  ; 
and  after  a  long  struggle  to  keep  at  work  in  spite 
of  everything,  he  was  at  last  obliged  to  give  it 
up  and  go  to  Puebla  to  try  the  effect  of  the 
sulphur-springs  for  which  the  place  is  famed. 

The  springs  bubble  up  into  huge  artificial 
baths,  and  as  long  as  he  could  spend  the  morn- 
ing reading  his  newspaper,  with  the  tepid  water 
up  to  his  neck,  the  invalid  was  fairly  comfor- 
table ;  though  the  certainty  of  having  to  dry 
himself  on  a  towel  which  would  be  small  for  a 
baby  in  arms  was  not  inviting  from  any  but  a 
Mexican  point  of  view.  But  the  worst  was,  that 
the  moment  he  left  his  harbour  of  refuge,  the 
terrible  irritation  began  again  in  full  force.  So 
at  last  he  had  to  call  in  a  local  doctor,  who 
scouted  the  idea  of  poison  ivy,  and  suggested 
that  haven  for  the  destitute  in  medical  science 
—  rheumatic  gout.  Finding  himself  at  fault 
there,  he  next  inquired  carefully  into  the  ances- 
try—  near  and  remote  —  of  his  patient,  saying 
gravely  that  it  was  a  sad  oversight  on  the  part 
of  any  man  not  to  make  himself  fully  acquainted 


298  Fresh  Fields. 

with  the  details  of  his  great-grandmother's  con- 
stitution. After  listening  to  the  small  amount 
of  information  Jack  was  able  to  give  him  on  the 
point  in  question,  he  said  that  he  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  the  invalid  was  suffering  from 
snake-bite  !  He  treasured  this  idea  as  an  inspir- 
ation of  genius,  and  was  with  difficulty  weaned 
from  it,  and  induced  to  suggest  some  remedy 
for  an  irritated  skin.  It  was  only  among  first 
causes  that  he  lost  himself,  —  with  effects  he  was 
at  home ;  so  he  ordered  bran-baths,  which 
proved  to  be  so  efficacious  that  the  patient  soon 
began  to  take  some  interest  in  life  again,  and 
prepared  to  enjoy  wandering  about  the  quaint 
old  streets  and  worn  fortified  walls  of  Puebla. 

The  manufactory  of  antiquities  he  found  very 
instructive  :  it  is  said  that  when  one  of  the  Astors 
visited  Mexico,  Puebla  was  nearly  ruined  by  the 
strain  on  its  resources.  But  best  of  all  in  the 
historical  city  is  the  curious  old  blue  pottery  of 
distinctly  oriental  design,  fragments  of  which 
may  still  be  found  in  back  slums  and  out-of-the- 
way  places.  The  story  goes  that,  on  settling 
themselves  at  Puebla,  the  first  monks  who  went 
over  from  Spain  soon  discovered  a  similarity  in 
the  clay  to  that  used  in  their  own  country  for 
pottery.     They  thereupon  built  works,  and  made 


A    Yankee  Drummer.  299 

a  large  revenue  from  the  manufacture  of  graceful 
and  beautiful  objects,  few  of  which,  alas !  now 
remain;  while  the  potteries  themselves  were 
pulled  down  and  ruined  a  couple  of  hundred 
years  ago. 

Looking  down  upon  Puebla  from  its  solitary- 
height  is  the  extinct  volcano  of  Malinche,  for- 
merly the  headquarters  of  every  bandit  in  the 
country.  The  tradition  is,  that  their  forces  were 
at  one  time  so  strong  that  when  at  last  the  Gov- 
ernment resolved  upon  their  suppression,  the 
outlaws  lost  over  four  hundred  men  in  the 
struggle  which  took  place  before  they  were 
conquered ;  and  this  although  their  numbers 
were  frequently  thinned  by  private  enterprise. 
For  instance :  the  governor  of  a  State  was  once 
robbed  of  $6000  not  far  from  his  own  capital ; 
and  perfectly  furious  at  the  affront  to  his  dignity, 
he  turned  out  every  trooper  in  the  State  bandit- 
shooting.  For  some  days  there  was  a  regular 
battue,  resulting  in  about  two  hundred  male- 
factors being  shot  or  hanged.  All  the  same,  the 
governor  never  saw  his  money  again. 

A  Yankee  drummer  is  supposed  to  be  the 
only  individual  who  ever  proved  a  match  for  a 
whole  party  of  bandits.  He  was  in  a  coach 
which  was  "  held   up  "   in  the  usual  way,  when 


300  Fresh  Fields. 

his  fellow-passengers  at  once  advocated  uncon- 
ditional surrender.  But  as  luck  would  have  it, 
the  Yankee  was  travelling  for  the  "  Winchester 
Small  Arms  Company,"  with,  of  course,  a  full 
accoutrement.  He  grasped  the  situation  with 
the  inspiration  of  true  genius,  and,  with  the  eye 
of  a  Stanley,  saw  his  way  to  a  magnificent  adver- 
tisement. In  an  instant  he  was  out  and  under 
the  coach,  his  pocket  full  of  cartridges,  and  his 
"  sample  "  repeater  in  hand.  Then  he  turned 
his  shooting-iron  loose,  and  emptied  eight 
saddles  before  the  astonished  bandits  could  get 
out  of  range.  This  was  the  first  introduction  of 
repeating-rifies  into  Mexico,  and  it  is  superfluous 
to  add  that  they  sold  well  afterwards. 

Before  leaving  Puebla,  Jack  found  time  to 
pay  a  visit  to  Cholula  close  by,  where  the  won- 
derful artificial  mound,  whose  origin  is  lost  in 
the  mists  of  antiquity,  rears  its  lofty  head. 
There  are  still  a  few  who  believe  it  to  be  a 
natural  eminence,  but  the  majority  have  ac- 
cepted the  dictum  of  the  best  authorities  that 
each  stone  and  each  spadeful  of  earth  have 
been  piled  up  by  human  hands.  The  climb 
to  the  top  is  up  so  nicely  graduated  an  incline, 
sheltered  by  such  leafy  trees,  that,  long  though 
it  is,  it  can  scarcely  be  called  very  fatiguing. 


The  Pyramid  at  C ho  lit  la.  301 

Once  on  the  summit,  the  view  is  magnificent. 
Popocatepetl,  though  miles  away,  looks  near 
enough  to  touch ;  while  on  clear  days  it  is 
possible  to  see  a  little  way  into  the  crater  of 
the  volcano.  It  is  difficult  to  realise  the  labour 
involved,  first  in  raising  this  great  pyramid,  and 
then  in  carrying  up  materials  for  building  the 
stately  church  which  crowns  its  topmost  peak. 

As  soon  as  he  felt  really  well  again,  Jack  lost 
no  time  in  getting  back  to  work,  especially  as 
at  the  time  his  illness  began  he  was  engaged 
in  an  important  piece  of  business  —  that  of 
negotiating  on  behalf  of  his  company  for  the 
acquisition  of  a  large  tract  of  mining  property 
in  the  little-known  State  of  Chiapas.  As  usual, 
there  were  several  vendors,  each  with  differing 
interests ;  and  Mr  Jebb  found  that  all  the  tact, 
temper,  and  patience  he  could  summon  to  his 
aid  would  certainly  be  required  before  the  pur- 
chase was  completed.  Of  course  the  inevitable 
preliminaries — the  report  of  a  mining  expert, 
the  haggling  over  price,  and  dispute  as  to  de- 
tails—  were  duly  gone  through  before  the  mines 
changed  hands. 

Meanwhile  Jack  had  to  visit  and  inspect  them 
several  times.  Now  he  was  not  given  to  grum- 
bling  over    crumpled    rose-leaves,    and    in    his 


302  Fresh  Fields. 

heart  thought  that  a  man  who  slept  under  a 
roof  when  the  climate  would  admit  of  his  re- 
posing in  the  open  was  a  singularly  misguided 
person.  Still,  even  he  was  constrained  to  ad- 
mit that  the  journey  to  Chiapas  was  a  little 
rough.  The  first  day  was  spent  in  the  lap  of 
luxury  on  the  railroad  between  Mexico  and 
Vera  Cruz ;  then,  unless  lucky  enough  to  catch 
a  Ward  liner,  came  a  clay  and  night  in  a  dirty, 
frequently  unseaworthy  boat  from  the  latter 
place  to  Frontera.  No  beds  were  provided  on 
these  boats,  and  the  night  had  to  be  spent  on 
deck  —  no  great  hardship,  but  for  the  smell  and 
uncleanliness,  and  worst  of  all,  the  mosquitoes. 
Except  when  once  spending  a  happy  day  on 
the  Mosquito  coast,  Jack  had  never  encoun- 
tered any  of  their  species  so  hungry  and 
pertinacious  as  these.  But  the  worst  was  yet 
to  come.  To  a  night  at  Frontera  —  where  the 
intense  sticky  heat  made  pyjamas  feel  like  fur 
rugs  for  warmth,  and  where  a  perfect  halo  of 
mosquitoes  turned  the  sufferer  into  a  capital 
representation  of  a  tortured  medieval  saint,  in 
all  but  language  —  succeeded  a  day's  journey 
in  a  smaller  and  a  dirtier  boat  than  the  preced- 
ing one.  This  vessel  was  punted  by  Indians 
along   a    river   which,    shallow    enough    in    the 


Pertinacious  Mosquitoes.  303 

short  dry  season,  was  liable  to  become  a  raging 
torrent  at  very  short  notice  during  the  rains. 
There  being  no  sort  of  shelter,  the  fierce  rays 
of  the  tropical  sun  worked  their  fiery  will  on 
the  navigators  of  that  river,  while  the  mosqui- 
toes, whose  zeal  never  slackened,  were  ably 
seconded  in  their  attack  by  a  little  black  fly, 
whose  vigour  amply  compensated  for  its  size. 
The  company  has  its  own  launches  on  the  river 
now,  and  has  besides  improved  the  road  to  the 
mines,  so  probably  there  are  a  few  alleviations 
to  the  trip.  In  those  days  there  were  none. 
Moreover,  in  the  state  of  Chiapas  even  the 
rainy  season  is  wild  and  irregular,  quite  refus- 
ing to  conform  to  custom  and  confine  itself  to 
the  proper  time  of  year;  so  that  not  only  is 
a  drenching  possible  at  almost  any  moment, 
but  the  roads  are  only  to  be  called  such  by  the 
courtesy  of  travellers.  After  leaving  the  boats 
(accompanied  by  various  insects  of  affectionate 
disposition)  came  a  long  ride  through  marsh- 
land, where  the  mules  frequently  sank  up  to 
their  knees  in  loose  mud,  and  where  progress, 
therefore,  was  apt  to  be  a  little  slow.  To  this 
succeeded  many  leagues  of  arduous  journeying 
over  mountains,  along  the  edge  of  precipices, 
through   flooded  rivers  and   rocky  canons,  be- 


304  Fresh  Fields. 

fore     the     ride     of    forty    miles    was     at    last 
completed. 

Even  when,  through  much  tribulation,  Jack 
reached  the  mines,  things  were  scarcely  more 
comfortable.  They  had  been  worked  little,  if 
at  all,  for  generations,  and  what  had  been  con- 
sidered a  suitable  headquarters  in  those  days 
was  now  a  hut  through  which  the  rain  poured 
in  torrents,  and  in  whose  walls  were  interesting 
gaps,  where,  it  was  impossible  to  help  thinking, 
it  would  be  very  easy  for  a  disaffected  Indian 
to  steal  at  dead  of  night  and  let  out  a  little  here- 
tic life-blood  with  a  knife.  The  one  redeeming 
feature  of  the  place  was  the  fact  that  mosquitoes 
eschewed  it,  probably  judging  from  its  appear- 
ance that  there  would  be  nothing  fit  to  eat 
within.  But  it  must  not  be  inferred  from  this 
that  there  was  any  lack  of  the  animal  creation. 
There  were  tarantulas  and  scorpions,  snakes 
and  jiggers;  and  worst  of  all  was  a  little  insect 
so  minute  that  it  was  impossible  to  see  it  with- 
out a  magnifying-glass,  yet  when  it  had  worked 
its  way  under  the  skin,  as  it  was  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  it  produced  large  irritable  ulcers.  Jack, 
after  a  week's  attention  from  it,  looked  as  though 
he  were  sickening  for  smallpox,  and  it  was  quite 
in  vain  that  he  tried    all  the  usual  preventives 


Relics  of  Bygone  Civilisation.  305 

and  remedies.  It  liked  petroleum,  and  throve 
upon  tobacco-juice  ;  and  the  only  relief  to  be 
obtained  was  by  the  heroic  method  of  pouring 
pure  spirit  on  the  sores,  which  of  course  made 
them  smart  horribly,  but  allayed  the  irritation. 
These  little  contretemps  did  not,  however,  affect 
the  value  of  the  property,  and  as  the  sale  pro- 
ceeded to  a  satisfactory  issue,  no  more  need  be 
said  upon  the  subject. 

Although  he  repeated  this  expedition  several 
times,  to  his  great  regret  Jack  was  never  able  to 
find  time  or  opportunity  to  visit  the  ruins  of 
Palenque  —  only  three  days'  distance  from  the 
mines.  Could  he  have  gone  straight  there,  it 
would  have  been  easy  enough  ;  but  to  undertake 
the  journey  across  country  through  jungle  in 
which  every  step  would  have  to  be  cut,  and 
which  in  that  climate  would  have  grown  up 
again  before  his  return,  was  manifestly  impos- 
sible. But  it  is  not  in  Palenque  alone  that 
strange  relics  of  a  bygone  civilisation  are  to  be 
found,  for  even  in  the  locality  of  the  mines  won- 
derful traces  of  a  race  which  was  beginning  to 
decay  before  we  emerged  from  barbarism  could 
occasionally  be  encountered.  For  instance,  Jack 
Jebb  was  shown  an  enormous  metal  bell,  weigh- 
ing several  tons,  which  one  would  think  could 


306  Fresh  Fields. 

never  have  been  conveyed  over  that  marshy 
country  by  anything  short  of  a  railway,  yet  it 
could  scarcely  have  been  cast  on  the  spot.  But 
ii"  not,  where?  He  also  saw  the  remains  of  what, 
generations  ago,  must  have  been  a  colossal  statue 
hewn  out  of  solid  stone ;  but  by  whose  hands 
and  with  what  tools,  history  is  silent. 

The  natives  of  the  country  are  shy  and  wild, 
as  is  natural  enough  after  the  ages  of  slavery 
they  have  undergone.  Indeed  their  present 
state  is  but  little  removed  from  it ;  for  the  own- 
ers of  the  vast  estates  on  which  they  work  also 
own  the  tiendas,  or  provision  stores,  where  the 
Indians  purchase  the  necessaries  of  life.  They 
invariably  run  into  debt  at  these  places,  the  debt 
sometimes  being  even  hereditary:  so,  as  they 
are  not  allowed  to  leave  the  country  until  it  is 
paid,  there  is  very  little  chance  of  their  ever 
being  able  to  do  so ;  while  Chiapas  is  too  far 
from  the  seat  of  Government  for  this  state  of 
things  to  be  easily  remedied.  The  people  are 
said  to  hold  in  great  veneration  a  huge  snake  of 
incalculable  age,  which  they  keep  jealously  hid- 
den in  some  secret  place.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  something  of  the  kind  actually  exists;  and 
Jack,  getting  an  inkling  of  its  whereabouts,  tried 
hard  to  penetrate  the  mystery.     But  as  he  was 


Distress  of  a  British   Tourist.  307 

privately  warned  that  he  would  certainly  be 
murdered  if  he  persisted  in  the  search,  he 
gave  it  up  perforce,  and  strove  to  content  him- 
self with  the  few  inanimate  antiquities  he  was 
able  to  find  —  chiefly  fragments  of  idols  and 
arrow-heads. 

There  was  a  family  likeness  between  all  his 
visits  to  these  mines,  and  it  would  be  superfluous 
therefore  to  further  describe  them.  But  on  this 
special  journey  he  had  travelled  from  Mexico 
to  Vera  Cruz  with  a  perfect  specimen  of  a  British 
tourist,  who  was  starting  to  explore  Palenque 
with  an  eyeglass,  and  a  gardenia  in  his  button- 
hole. On  his  return  a  month  afterwards,  Jack 
met  the  same  tourist,  judging  from  his  conver- 
sation, but,  oh !  how  changed  as  to  his  outer 
man !  He  was  neatly  and  lightly  clad  in  a  pair 
of  old  trousers  and  a  pyjama  jacket,  while  every 
portion  of  his  person  visible  beyond  and  between 
these  habiliments  was  clothed  in  a  purple  rai- 
ment of — bites!  He  had  never  got  as  far  as 
Palenque  either,  and  with  much  force  of  diction 
he  expressed  his  intention  of  making  no  further 
effort  to  do  so. 

As  for  Jack,  between  the  combined  attack  of 
fever  and  poison  ivy  from  which  he  had  but 
barely  recovered  when  he  left  Mexico,  and  the 


308  Fresh  Fields. 

blood-poisoning  resulting  from  his  late  whole- 
sale consumption  by  insects  of  various  sorts,  he 
returned  feeling  considerably  the  worse  for  wear. 
A  few  days  of  good  food,  and  such  nursing  as 
he  would  submit  to,  put  him  fairly  right  again; 
though  eventually  he  had  to  take  a  sea-trip  to 
New  York  before  getting  rid  of  the  last  traces 
of  his  misfortunes.  There  was  a  great  accumula- 
tion of  what  his  soul  loathed  —  office  work  — 
waiting  for  him  when  he  got  back  from  the 
Chiapas  trip,  and,  of  course,  it  had  to  be  steadily 
waded  through  before  he  could  think  of  going 
away  again,  although  he  was  anxious  to  visit 
once  more  the  mines  up  in  the  mountains. 

Between  times  he  and  his  wife  wandered  over 
the  city,  down  blind  alleys,  and  through  back 
streets,  where  in  the  unlikeliest  places  the  most 
perfect  curios  were  often  to  be  found  :  gorgeous 
embroidered  or  brocaded  vestments,  sold  by 
servants  of  the  Church,  who  considered  their 
mistress  best  honoured  by  the  use  of  robes  which 
were  clean  and  bright  and  new  !  Sometimes  the 
seekers  after  antiquities  would  run  across  lovely 
specimens  of  Venetian  glass,  or  curiously  jew- 
elled knives,  or  armour  last  used  in  raids  against 
the  Apaches ;  but  most  plentiful  of  all  were  idols 
—  "ancient  and   modern."     A  quick  eye  soon 


The  American   Tourist.  309 

learnt  to  detect  the  difference  between  those 
just  dug  up  after  a  preliminary  burial  to  "  give 
them  a  tone,"  and  those  old  images  that  once 
ruled  the  destinies  of  the  people  who  believed 
in  their  power.  There  are  few  of  the  latter  now 
to  be  bought,  though  it  is  not  so  much  the  law 
against  their  exportation  which  has  affected 
the  sale  as  the  ubiquitous  American  tourist  who 
visits  Mexico  in  batches  of  a  couple  of  hundred 
at  a  time,  and  buys  everything  that  is  shown  to 
him  at  the  price  at  which  it  is  offered  —  a  thing 
to  sadden  the  heart  of  any  collector. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   SIERRAS   ONCE   MORE. 

MEXICAN  BULL-FIGHTS BULL-SPORTS RESEEKS  THE  SIERRAS 

SENT     FOR     BY    THE    CACIQUE  — A  SUPPOSED  MYSTERIOUS 

MURDER MAKES     A    DISCOVERY  —  THE     PURSUIT NOT    A 

CASE  OF  MURDER,  BUT  OF  INSANITV  —  A  FIERCE  RESIST- 
ANCE—  GRATITUDE  OF  THE  ACCUSED  CRIMINAL POPULAR- 
ITY AMONG  THE  PEONS  —  AT  "  POVERTY  ROW  " ENJOY- 
MENT OF  THE  FREE  UNCONVENTIONAL  LIFE  —  BIRTH  OF  A 
SON — ACQUISITION     OF     AN     AZTEC     IDOL  —  ITS     APPARENT 

UNLUCKY     INFLUENCE ITS      FIRST    NIGHT     ON     A     FOREIGN 

SOIL CONTINUED  MALIGN  EFFECTS. 

Bull-fights  have  now  been  forbidden  in  the 
city  of  Mexico,  but  at  the  time  of  which  this 
history  treats,  they  gladdened  the  eyes  of  the 
population  every  Sunday.  The  bull-rings  were 
always  crowded,  and  the  streets  gay  with  the 
parti-coloured  banderillas  hawked  about  for  sale 
by  picturesque,  dirty  little  Indians.  If  there  was 
a  stain  or  two  of  blood  on  the  iron-tipped  sticks, 
which  looked  so  innocent  in  their  frilled  paper 
coverings,  so  much  the  better,  for  it  proved  that 
they  had  been  actually  used,  and  doubled  their 
value.  A  good  deal  of  sympathy  is  usually 
wasted    on   the   principal    actor    in   the  weekly 


Bull-fights.  3 1 1 

tragedy ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  well-bred 
bull  in  good  condition  thoroughly  enjoys  a  fight, 
while  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  get  "  blown," 
nothing  could  be  quicker  or  more  painless  than 
the  death  that  awaits  him.  The  best  proof  of 
this  is,  that  should  a  matador  ever  fail  to  kill  at 
the  first  stroke,  he  is  promptly  hissed  out  of  the 
ring,  lucky  if  a  few  benches  do  not  follow  him  ! 
The  real  cruelty  is  to  the  wretched  horses. 
Animals  are  provided  so  old  and  worn  out  as 
to  be  under  sentence  of  death  in  any  case  ;  but 
the  lingering  agony  inflicted  upon  them  in  the 
bull-ring  when,  gored  and  torn,  they  are  forced 
again  and  again  upon  the  cruel  horns,  is  a  sight 
to  turn  a  strong  man  sick  to  see. 

Jack  liked  the  preliminaries,  the  processions 
of  gorgeously  attired  bull-fighters,  the  first  skil- 
fully evaded  rush  of  the  angry  bull,  the  agility 
with  which  the  men  leapt  over  and  over  its  back 
with  their  long  jumping-poles,  or  rolled  along 
the  ground  just  beneath  its  horns;  but  he  was 
always  careful  to  leave  directly  the  horses  were 
brought  in.  It  fell  to  his  lot  to  escort  a  good 
many  tourists  first  and  last;  becaOse  of  course 
no  properly  constituted  "  Cook"  would  consent 
to  leave  Mexico  without  having  seen  the  national 
pastime.     It  was  amusing  sometimes  to  sec  how 


3 1 2  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

they  "  took  it."  Some  ladies  threatened  to 
write  to  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals;  some  felt  it  their  duty  to  faint ; 
but  one  lady,  with  more  sang-froid  than  the  rest, 
leant  over  to  her  husband  as  the  men  planted 
the  banderillas  in  the  bull's  neck,  and  asked 
placidly,  "John,  dear,  does  it  hurt  the  poor  cow 
to  have  that  thing  stuck  in  his  mane?" 

More  amusing  to  the  average  foreigner  than 
the  actual  fights  are  the  bull-sports,  in  which 
that  justly  incensed  animal  takes  an  entirely  in- 
voluntary part !  About  half-a-dozen  men  on 
horseback  place  themselves  at  intervals  round  a 
ring,  and  the  same  number  of  bulls  come  charg- 
ing out  at  a  given  signal.  It  is  then  the  duty 
of  each  man  to  catch  a  bull  by  the  tail  —  no  easy 
task,  and  one  which  calls  forth  some  very  pretty 
riding.  Once  caught,  they  all  gallop  furiously 
round  the  ring  two  or  three  times,  the  bull  pro- 
testing vigorously  meanwhile,  when  suddenly, 
while  at  full  gallop,  by  a  quick  twist  of  the  tail 
round  the  rider's  foot,  the  animal  is  thrown  over 
on  its  back  ;  usually  lying  there  for  a  few  min- 
utes with  its  legs  in  the  air  and  a  mingled 
expression  of  injured  dignity,  combined  with 
inquiry  as  to  how  it  was  done,  that  is  simply 
irresistible  to  the  looker-on. 


Anxious  to  Revisit  tJic  Mines. 


jl  j 


These,  however,  were  diversions,  and  Jack  was 
always  too  busy  to  afford  himself  very  many,  for 
he  did  not  possess  the  happy  faculty  of  forget- 
ting business  out  of  office  hours.  When  an  im- 
portant negotiation  was  going  on,  or  some  obsti- 
nate ores  refusing  to  be  smelted,  the  subject  was 
never  out  of  his  mind  until  he  had  conquered 
its  difficulties,  or  had  been  vanquished  by  them 

—  a  much  rarer  event.  At  present  he  was  anx- 
ious to  get  up  to  the  mines,  where  he  had  spent 
his  first  years  in  Mexico,  but  which  the  press  of 
other  work  had  obliged  him  to  rather  neglect 
of  late.  Of  course  he  received  constant  intelli- 
gence of  their  progress,  and  knew  that  they  were 
now  paying  their  own  expenses  —  about  as  much 
as  a  self-respecting  mine  can  be  expected  to  do 

—  but  still,  no  amount  of  correspondence  was 
equal  to  a  personal  inspection.  He  therefore 
strained  every  nerve  to  get  through  the  arrears 
of  work  left  by  his  Chiapas  trip,  and  in  a  few 
months  found  himself  fairly  free  to  start  for 
the  sierras. 

Their  breezy  heights  seemed  very  refreshing 
after  the  heat  of  the  tropics  and  the  confine- 
ment of  Mexico;  besides,  the  natives  were  all 
glad  to  see  him  back,  and  anxious  to  know  if 
the  "  people  of  the  plains  "  were  quite  as  black 


314  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

as  they  were  painted.  Altogether  he  soon  slipped 
into  the  old  routine,  spending  several  weeks  very 
congenially  in  going  up  and  down  monkey-poles, 
coddling  furnaces,  and  assaying  ores. 

It  was  not  that  these  joys  began  to  pall,  but 
because  he  had  received  several  imperative  mes- 
sages from  that  arbitrary  old  gentleman,  that  Jack 
at  last  went  off  to  pay  a  few  days'  visit  to  his 
friend  the  Cacique.  The  thirty-mile  ride  was 
worth  taking  for  its  own  sake  alone,  for  nothing 
more  picturesque  was  ever  imagined  by  poet 
or  painted  by  artist  than  the  narrow  trail  dip- 
ping steadily  downward  until,  leaving  the  pine- 
crowned  mountains  behind,  it  wound  through  a 
tropical  valley  beside  plashing  brooks  overhung 
by  orange-trees  and  lined  with  ferns.  On  reach- 
ing the  hacienda  Jack  found  that,  if  possible,  a 
warmer  welcome  than  usual  awaited  him,  the 
reason  of  which,  and  of  his  own  summons,  the 
old  chief  proceeded  to  explain  over  some  very 
good  Burgundy  after  dinner.  It  appeared  that 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  wanted  advice  as 
to  how  to  deal  with  a  criminal.  Usually  the 
rough-and-ready  justice  he  dispensed  was  ad- 
mitted by  all  but  the  culprit  to  be  suited  to  the 
occasion,  but  this  time  every  one  was  at  fault, 
including  himself.     Had  he  been  satisfied,  it  is 


A  Mutual  Fend.  315 

unlikely  that  he  would  have  hesitated  in  defer- 
ence to  public  opinion,  as  exemplified  by  his 
peons. 

The  facts  were  as  follows :  there  were  two 
Indians  who  lived  close  to  each  other,  but  at  a 
distance  of  several  miles  from  the  village.  Each 
man  had  his  own  adobe  hut  and  little  strip  of 
ground,  whose  cultivation  provided  him  with 
employment  and  food.  Neither  had  any  family 
ties,  so  that,  living  in  their  isolated  position,  the 
two  men  might  have  been  expected  to  find  com- 
panionship in  each  other.  So  far  from  this  being 
the  case,  however,  they  were  known  to  cherish  a 
mutual  feud,  and  never  to  enter  each  other's 
house.  When,  therefore,  one  of  the  enemies 
suddenly  disappeared  and  his  blood-stained 
clothes  were  found  in  his  neighbour's  hut,  it 
did  not  require  a  detective  to  arrive  at  the  con- 
clusion that  murder  had  been  done.  In  spite  of 
his  passionate  denials  the  accused  was  promptly 
hauled  off  to  gaol,  there  to  await  the  sentence 
of  the  Cacique;  and  as  to  what  that  would  be 
there  was  at  first  no  doubt. 

Oddly  enough,  considering  the  solitary  life 
he  had  led,  the  exact  date  of  the  missing  man's 
disappearance  was  known.  He  was  negotiating 
with  an  Indian  in  the  village  for  the  sale  of  a 


3 16  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

sheep,  and  the  day  before  his  murder  had  made 
an  appointment  for  the  following  day,  when  the 
bargain  was  to  be  concluded.  It  was  his  failure 
to  keep  this  engagement  which  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  crime.  Now,  so  far  all  was  plain 
sailing;  the  difficulties  were  to  come.  In  the 
first  place,  the  most  diligent  search  failed  to 
reveal  the  slightest  trace  of  the  body  ;  and  as 
even  in  that  part  of  the  world  a  corpse  is  a 
necessary  detail  of  a  trial  for  murder,  this  caused 
a  slight  hitch  in  the  proceedings.  Next,  three 
or  four  respectable  peons  came  forward  volun- 
tarily and  swore  by  all  their  gods  that  the 
prisoner  had  been  in  their  company  the  whole 
of  the  time  during  which  the  crime  could  have 
been  committed,  and  that  therefore  it  was  im- 
possible he  could  be  implicated  in  it.  None  of 
these  men  were  in  any  way  related  to  the 
accused,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
why  they  should  draw  down  the  wrath  of  the 
chief  upon  themselves  by  giving  false  evidence. 
Still,  their  statements  would  probably  not  have 
carried  much  weight  had  it  not  been  for  the 
unaccountable  absence  of  the  body.  Some  one 
suggested  that  the  missing  man  might  have 
gone  away,  leaving  his  clothes  in  his  neighbour's 
hut  on  purpose  to  cast  suspicion  of  murder  on 


The  Cacique's  Indecision.  317 

his  enemy.  But  he  could  not  have  gone  far 
without  being  seen;  and  besides,  as  mounted 
troops  were  out  scouring  the  country  in  all 
directions,  on  the  second  day  of  the  disappear- 
ance, they  must  have  overtaken  him,  had  this 
idea  been  correct. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  Jack  ar- 
rived at  the  hacienda,  and  the  Cacique,  between 
his  conviction  of  the  prisoner's  guilt  and  his 
reluctance  to  proceed  to  extremes  until  the 
murdered  man  was  found,  was  in  a  condition  of 
mingled  indecision  and  helplessness  as  novel  as 
it  was  disagreeable  to  him.  Next  morning, 
together  with  his  guest,  he  started  early  for  the 
scene  of  the  tragedy.  Nothing  in  the  hut  had 
been  touched,  and  on  examining  the  clothes  — 
left  in  a  conspicuous  place  by  the  murderer  — 
Jack  quickly  came  to  the  conclusion  that,  judging 
from  the  position  of  the  blood-stains,  the  victim's 
throat  must  have  been  cut.  There  was,  how- 
ever, no  sign  of  any  struggle  having  taken  place, 
and  outside  the  door  the  marks  of  many  recent 
footprints  had  apparently  obliterated  the  earlier 
tracks. 

But  Jack  had  not  spent  years  in  the  Rockies 
for  nothing;  and  presently,  helped  by  the  loose 
Indian  sandals  thrown    amoncr  the  other  cloth- 


3 1 8  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

ing,  he  managed  to  make  out  that  the  missing 
man  had  walked  alone  from  his  own  hut  to  the 
one  where  he  seemed  to  have  met  his  death. 
A  few  moments  more  of  close  scrutiny,  and  a 
bare  foot-mark  leaving  the  house  startled  him 
almost  as  much  as  his  famous  discovery  did 
Robinson  Crusoe.  Further  search  revealed  here 
and  there  faint  tracks  of  a  man  who  seemed  to 
have  been  running  for  his  life;  yet  no  trace 
whatever  of  any  pursuit  followed  in  the  tracks. 
As  the  mystery  deepened,  Jack  resolved  to 
make  at  least  a  vigorous  attempt  to  solve  it;  so 
he  proposed  that  the  Cacique  should  lend  him 
a  couple  of  soldiers  to  carry  anything  he  might 
discover,  and  that  he  would  then  follow  the 
trail  wherever  it  led.  That  potentate  was  only 
too  glad  to  accept  the  offer,  and  Jack  with  his 
escort  started  off  at  a  crawl,  which  soon  became 
a  walk  as  the  trail,  at  first  nearly  obliterated  by 
other  marks,  became  plainer  the  farther  they 
went. 

The  rapid  flight  of  the  fugitive  from  the  house 
had  soon  changed  into  a  quick  trot,  which  never 
varied  for  miles.  He  had  made  for  the  moun- 
tains, and  over  their  rocky  faces  his  footprints 
were  sometimes  invisible;  but  Jack  persevered, 
and    was    invariably   rewarded    by    finding   the 


In  Pursuit.  319 

trail  again  a  little  farther  on.  It  was  now  quite 
obvious  that  no  murder  had  been  done,  and  the 
only  other  hypothesis  to  explain  all  the  circum- 
stances seemed  to  be  that  of  insanity.  Any- 
how, the  prisoner  was  innocent;  for  the  minutest 
examination  of  the  ground  failed  to  discover  the 
slightest  trace  of  pursuing  steps. 

About  mid-day  the  party  halted  to  partake  of 
the  tortillas  and  pulque  with  which  they  had 
supplied  themselves  before  starting;  then,  feel- 
ing refreshed  and  rested,  they  pushed  on  again. 
Jack  soon  began  to  see  signs  that  at  this  stage 
the  man  of  whom  they  were  in  search  had  begun 
to  get  fagged,  and  that  therefore  new  develop- 
ments might  be  expected.  Sure  enough,  the 
trail  presently  stopped  short,  turned  off  abruptly 
to  the  right,  going  down  a  narrow  zigzag  path, 
and  then  broke  off  altogether  at  what  looked  at 
first  like  a  thicket  of  ferns  and  overgrown  weeds. 
A  closer  scrutiny  showed  that  hidden  behind  the 
tangled  bushes  was  the  mouth  of  an  old  mine, 
and  that  though  some  one  had  certainly  entered 
it  recently,  there  were  no  traces  of  his  having 
emerged.  Therefore,  dead  or  alive,  the  man 
was  inside.  And  now  came  the  unpleasant  part 
of  the  business.  The  two  soldiers  had  never 
been  inside  a  mine  in  their  lives,  and  their  faces 


320  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

plainly  showed  that  they  would  rather  begin 
their  researches  on  a  more  auspicious  occasion 
than  the  present,  when  there  seemed  to  be  about 
an  equal  chance  of  finding  either  a  corpse  or  a 
dangerous  lunatic  at  the  end  of  their  investiga- 
tions. Jack  did  not  feel  enthusiastic  over  the 
situation  himself,  but  he  prepared  to  explore 
the  mine  as  far  as  possible,  while  his  escort 
cleared  away  the  underbrush  from  its  mouth,  so 
as  to  let  in  a  little  light  —  because,  needless  to 
say,  not  expecting  this  de'nofimcnt,  they  had 
brought  no  candles.  To  add  to  the  difficulties, 
Jack  had  not  gone  many  paces  before  he  found 
that  the  mine  was  full  of  water,  so  he  had  to 
return  to  the  mouth  and  undress  for  swimming. 
When,  on  the  second  attempt,  his  body  first 
touched  the  cold  slimy  water,  in  the  almost  total 
darkness  of  the  mine,  it  must  be  confessed  that 
his  sensations  were  not  cheerful.  For  one  thing, 
there  was  scarcely  room  to  swim,  and  he  might 
at  any  moment  be  stunned  by  some  overhanging 
rock,  or  stabbed  by  the  man  he  was  seeking, 
while  at  every  stroke  he  half  expected  his  hand 
to  come  in  contact  with  the  icy  body  of  a  corpse. 
Therefore  it  was  almost  a  relief  when  his  fears  were 
partly  realised,  and  suddenly,  round  a  projecting 
point,  he  came  upon  a  pair   of  glowing   eyes 


The  Prisoner  Released.  321 

looking  fiercely  into  his.  He  remarked  feebly, 
"  Oh,  you're  there !  "  Then  he  caught  hold  of 
one  leg  of  the  man,  who  was  sitting  up  on  a 
ledge,  and  after  a  breathless,  silent  struggle, 
managed  to  get  him  down  into  the  water  and 
swim  back  with  him  to  the  opening  of  the  mine, 
the  captive  resisting  furiously  all  the  while.  Once 
out  in  the  daylight  again,  it  was  hard  to  say 
whether  pursued  or  pursuer  looked  the  maddest, 
as,  torn,  bruised,  and  exhausted  with  his  exer- 
tions, Jack  surveyed  his  forlorn-looking  prize. 
The  latter  was  evidently  quite  mad,  and  to  the 
ravages  of  insanity  in  his  face  were  added  those 
of  a  five  days'  starvation  ;  yet  he  had  strength  for 
another  desperate  resistance  before  he  seemed 
to  take  in  the  fact  that  it  was  hopeless,  and 
suffered  himself  to  be  led  away  by  the  two  soldiers, 
while  Jack  followed  at  his  leisure. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  before  the  party 
reached  the  village,  tired  out  by  the  long  day's 
tramp,  with  its  exciting  climax.  They  were 
received  with  much  joy  by  the  villagers,  who 
escorted  them  in  a  body  to  the  Cacique.  The 
latter  had  been  so  worried  over  the  whole  case 
that  he  was  actually  pleased  to  find  that  he  had 
been  wrong,  and  with  copious  thanks  to  Jack 
he  sent  at  once  to   have  the  prisoner  released, 


322  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

who,  when  he  found  himself  free  again,  so  over- 
whelmed his  deliverer  with  gratitude  for  clearing 
him  of  the  charge  that  Jack  was  fain  to  protest 
he  should  shortly  wish  he  hadn't  done  so ! 

The  lunatic  never  recovered  his  reason,  so 
the  cause  of  his  sudden  insanity  and  curious 
disposal  of  his  clothing  remained  a  mystery. 
But  a  narrow  scratch  on  his  throat,  where  he  had 
evidently  attempted  to  cut  it,  and  then  changed 
his  mind,  told  the  story  of  the  blood-stains 
which  so  nearly  cost  a  man's  life. 

If  anything  had  been  needed  to  increase  the 
esteem  in  which  Jack  Jebb  was  held  among 
the  simple  people  of  the  sierras,  his  latest  ex- 
ploit would  have  supplied  it.  For  although 
they  could  on  occasion  follow  a  plain  trail 
themselves,  with  tracking  as  it  is  practised  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains  they  were  quite  unfamiliar. 
Jack's  achievement  therefore  seemed  to  them 
marvellous,  while  they  also  thought  it  passing 
strange  that  any  white  man  should  have  taken 
so  much  trouble  for  one  of  their  number. 

In  spite  of  the  lavish  hospitality  heartily 
pressed  upon  him,  Jack  could  not  afford  to 
linger  long  in  the  great  hacienda  of  the  Cacique, 
with  its  bare  and  lofty  rooms,  in  and  out  of 
which  a  large  variety  of  animals   wandered  at 


At  "Poverty  Row."  323 

their  pleasure.  The  visitor  was  often  awakened 
in  the  morning  by  the  cold  soft  nose  of  a  doe 
thrust  into  his  hand,  or  roused  at  night  by  the 
investigations  of  a  huge  hound  which  made 
him  a  special  care.  Still,  all  good  things  have 
an  end  (usually  a  speedy  one),  and  in  less  than 
a  week  he  was  once  more  installed  in  "  Poverty 
Row." 

That  "  desirable  residence  "  now  concealed 
some  of  its  original  crudity  under  a  luxuriant 
covering  of  roses,  but  the  interior  continued  to 
justify  its  name.  During  Jack's  long  absence  in 
Mexico  a  family  of  rats  had  installed  themselves 
in  his  bedroom,  and,  grown  arrogant  by  long 
occupation  of  the  premises,  they  held  noisy 
revels  nightly,  manifesting  an  open  contempt  for 
every  missile  the  room  contained.  Then  a  few 
panes  of  glass  were  broken  in  the  windows,  and 
as  the  nearest  store  for  the  supply  of  that  com- 
modity was  two  days'  ride  over  the  mountains, 
naturally  they  had  not  been  replaced.  So  that 
not  only  was  there  a  strong  current  of  the  thin, 
keen  Mexican  air,  which  grows  so  chill  when  the 
sun  has  not  risen  to  warm  it,  but  there  was  a 
fine  field  of  labour  for  enterprising  insects.  \Vc 
have  Scriptural  authority  for  regarding  the 
hornet  as  among  this  class;    so  it  was   perhaps 


324  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

not  surprising  that  a  few  of  them  established  a 
nest  in  a  crevice  of  the  wall  near  the  broken 
glass,  where  they  had  a  really  commanding 
position  for  operations  in  the  room.  In  a  novel 
the  sleeper  would  in  these  circumstances  have 
"turned  uneasily  in  his  bed";  but  Jack  knew 
better  than  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  for  there 
was  yet  another  animal,  whose  sole  aim  in  life 
appeared  to  be  getting  itself  overlaid.  It  was 
about  the  size  of  a  ladybird,  and  as  hard  as  a 
brickbat.  It  never  bit,  but  contented  itself  with 
simply  being  there.  Perhaps  that  was  enough  ; 
for  any  sudden  movement  on  the  part  of  the 
persecuted  occupant  of  the  bed  resulted  in  his 
feeling  very  much  as  though  he  were  taking  a 
playful  roll  over  a  pound  of  tin-tacks. 

These,  however,  were  trifles  which  interfered 
very  little  with  Jack's  enjoyment  of  the  free  un- 
conventional existence  which  was  to  him  the 
very  breath  of  life.  In  a  city,  surrounded  by  all 
the  luxuries  —  and  bonds  —  of  civilisation,  he 
felt  choked  and  restless ;  but  at  the  first  glimpse 
of  his  beloved  mountains  a  great  contentment 
always  fell  upon  him.  Unluckily  he  was  now 
involved  in  a  routine  of  office-work  from  which 
he  could  spare  but  little  time,  and  which  he 
would  never  have  attempted  to  endure  but  that 


Birth  of  a  Son.  325 

it  seemed  to  offer  so  good  a  chance  of  quickly 
setting  him  free  to  follow  his  inclination  to  wan- 
der for  the  rest  of  his  life.  So,  much  as  he 
would  have  liked  to  stop  and  take  his  part  in 
the  practical  working  of  the  mines,  directly  he 
had  done  all  for  which  his  presence  was  neces- 
sary he  felt  obliged  to  start  back  to  Mexico 
again. 

Little  happened  there  of  sufficient  interest  to 
record;  for  the  city  being  ruled  by  a  strong 
hand,  no  longer  dared  to  play  her  earlier  pranks, 
and  was  quiet,  respectable,  and  dull.  A  new 
star  at  the  Opera  House  or  a  ball  at  one  of  the 
Legations  formed  her  sedate  excitements,  and 
for  neither  of  these  was  Jack  very  likely  to  care. 
So  he  worked  steadily  early  and  late,  making 
new  combinations  and  planning  fresh  schemes 
—  when  the  monotony  was  disturbed  slightly  by 
two  events. 

One  of  these  was  the  advent  of  a  little  son, 
and  the  other  the  acquisition  of  a  new  idol.  Not 
new  in  an  opprobrious  sense,  for  its  pedigree 
was  unimpeachable,  and  Jack  had  long  sighed 
for  it  in  vain.  It  was  about  two  feet  high,  of 
grey  stone,  tinged  in  places  with  pink,  and  its 
complacent  ugly  face  was  where  in  a  proper 
anatomy  its  chest   should  have    been.     It    had 


326  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

been  dug  up  in  the  excavations  for  the  great 
drainage  works,  amidst  great  excitement  of  the 
native  mind,  and  was  recognised  by  the  Indians 
around  as  an  ancient  god  of  sacrifice  said  to  have 
been  buried  in  that  spot  by  their  forefathers, 
when  the  Spanish  priests  were  sweeping  the  land 
clear  of  its  temples  and  its  gods.  With  their 
usual  memory  of  tradition,  the  Indians  could 
point  out  the  very  spot  on  which  a  tall  pole  had 
stood  with  this  idol  fixed  upon  its  top,  while 
around  the  base  was  a  grinning  pile  of  skulls, 
mounting  ever  higher  and  higher  as  fresh  victims 
were  given  to  the  silent,  insatiable  image. 

There  is  seldom  a  chance  nowadays  of  finding 
any  antiquity  not  hailing  from  Birmingham,  and 
naturally  when  Jack  heard  of  this  discovery  and 
its  unquestioned  history  he  was  wild  to  possess 
the  idol.  But  it  was  in  vain  that  he  offered 
bribes  or  promises ;  one  of  the  native  officials 
had  taken  it,  and  refused  on  any  terms  to  give 
up  anything  so  rare  and  interesting.  Jack  re- 
turned again  and  again  to  the  siege,  but  with  no 
result.  Judge  then  of  his  surprise  when  one  day 
an  Indian  appeared  suddenly  on  the  stair  of  the 
house,  bearing  the  idol  on  his  back.  No  price 
was  asked  for  it,  nor  was  any  explanation  given 
of  this  sudden  change  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the 


An  Aztec  Idol.  327 

owner.  The  idol  was  simply  put  down  and  left. 
No  reason  was  ever  volunteered  for  this  strange 
conduct,  but  in  time  Jack  came  to  have  his  own 
opinion  about  the  matter. 

Meanwhile  he  was  delighted  with  his  new 
possession,  set  it  upon  a  sort  of  throne  in  the 
corner  of  a  room,  and  paid  it  about  as  much 
homage  as  even  an  idol  could  demand,  for  there 
were  reasons  for  believing  it  to  be  the  only  god 
of  slaughter  still  extant.  A  bygone  chronicler 
has  referred  to  the  fact  that  when  the  Spaniards 
reached  the  city  of  its  abode,  they  found  the 
pole  and  the  skulls,  but  of  the  idol  there  was  no 
trace.  Yet —  it  is  not  desired  to  encroach  on  Mr 
Anstey's  preserves,  but  it  is  an  absolute  fact 
that  from  the  day  he  became  the  owner  of  that 
placid-looking  lump  of  stone,  everything  that 
Jack  touched  went  wrong.  One  piece  of  busi- 
ness after  another,  which  up  to  that  date  had 
been  satisfactorily  progressing,  fell  through  and 
failed.  Negotiations  which  he  thought  com- 
pleted had  to  be  commenced  all  over  again, 
only  after  long  suspense  to  be  broken  off  finally. 
His  own  health  gave  way,  three  of  his  best  and 
dearest  friends  died  one  after  another,  and  the 
strange  perversity  of  his  affairs  was  such  that 
he  felt  no  surprise  when,  once  having  to  raise 


328  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

money  on  a  reversion  to  which  he  was  entitled, 
the  very  day  after  he  had  sold  his  expectations 
for  a  third  of  their  value  the  holder  died,  and 
Jack  would  have  come  in  for  the  whole  had  the 
signing  of  the  deeds  been  delayed  for  twenty- 
four  hours.  Of  course  it  did  not  occur  to  him 
to  connect  the  idol  with  these  mischances ;  but 
it  is  a  strange  thing  that  when,  broken  in  health 
and  fortunes,  he  went  to  London  with  his  family, 
the  first  night  the  Aztec  god  spent  on  foreign 
soil  was  signalised  by  loud  noises  all  over  a 
house  hitherto  warranted  to  be  of  the  quietest 
by  its  owners.  Nor  did  the  trouble  stop  here, 
for  every  night,  with  other  unpleasing  mani- 
festations, loud  knockings  took  place  at  a  par- 
ticular door  as  long  as  the  idol  remained  in  the 
house.  So  noisy  were  they  that  some  people 
could  not  sleep  for  the  sounds,  though  others 
heard  nothing  at  all. 

Nothing  can  be  proved  against  a  stone  image, 
but  it  seems  within  the  bounds  of  imagination 
that  an  unconscious  figure  looking  down  on  cen- 
turies of  bloodshed  should  become  in  a  manner 
saturated  with  the  malignant  atmosphere  around 
it,  and  should  give  forth  the  spirit  of  its  victims' 
agony  and  curses.  Whatever  the  cause  might 
be,  the  effects  were  as  has  been  stated,  and  from 


Malign  Influence.  329 

the  day  when  he  joyfully  accepted  it  to  that  of 
his  death  three  years  later,  the  idol  sat  and 
smiled,  while  Jack  struggled  bravely,  but  went 
down  —  down  ! 

One  is  glad  to  think  that  the  Aztec  deity  also 
had  its  vicissitudes ;  for  after  a  lady  visiting  the 
house  which  it  graced  with  its  presence  had 
been  kept  awake  three  nights  by  the  unearthly 
noises  constantly  going  on  in  and  about  her 
bedroom,  its  owner  decided  that  he  must  reluc- 
tantly make  up  his  mind  to  part  with  it.  To 
submit  it  to  the  indignity  of  sale  was  out  of 
the  question,  so  Jack  offered  to  give  it  to  one 
after  another  of  his  friends  who  had  frequently 
admired  its  dubious  charms.  Rather  to  his 
surprise,  none  of  them  seemed  to  yearn  for 
the  joys  of  possession,  although  they  had  all 
laughed  at  the  stories  told  of  its  proceedings. 

For  some  time  there  appeared  to  be  little 
chance  of  finding  it  a  "  comfortable  home," 
although  one  gentleman  offered  to  take  it  to  his 
country-house  and  put  it  in  the  pig-killing  shed, 
where  it  could  have  as  much  gore  served  up  to 
it  daily  as  it  required.  But  this  plan  was  put  a 
stop  to  by  the  fact  that  the  gentleman  who  made 
the  offer  was  the  husband  of  the  lady  who  had 
vainly  tried  to  sleep  through  the  idol's  nightly 


330  The  Sierras  Once  More. 

perambulations.  It  was  not  the  little  god  she 
objected  to  so  much  as  the  loss  of  her  natural 
rest,  she  was  careful  to  explain ;  still  she  flatly 
refused  to  tolerate  its  presence  on  any  premises 
over  which  she  ruled.  Finally  it  found  a  refuge 
with  a  lady  and  gentleman  sufficiently  enamoured 
of  its  appearance  and  antiquity  to  overlook  its 
bad  character  and  to  risk  the  consequences 
of  its  wrath.  They  took  it,  and  have  so  far 
stuck  to  it  manfully  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
from  the  date  of  its  advent  in  their  domestic 
circle  their  affairs  have  gone  as  crookedly  as 
those  of  its  former  owner.  But  the  end  is  not 
yet;  and  whether  the  malign  influence  exer- 
cised by  the  exiled  god,  the  undoubted  relic  of 
the  most  bloody  ritual  the  world  has  ever  known, 
or  the  incredulity  of  his  owners,  will  conquer  at 
the  last,  remains  yet  to  be  seen. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

CLOSING   YEARS. 

RESIDENCE      IN      MEXICO  AN     ANCIENT      HOUSE  OUT-DOOR 

PLEASURES A    PIC-NIC    PARTY  AT  PATZCUARO A  FAMOUS 

PICTURE BUSINESS    PROSPERITY    SEEMS  WELL  ASSURED 

SETS    OUT  ON   A  VISIT    TO    ENGLAND A    MISADVENTURE    BY 

THE  WAY ARRIVAL    AT    NEW  YORK SETTLES    IN  LONDON 

HIS  EVIL  STAR MEXICO  ONCE  AGAIN LAST  ILLNESS 

HOME  TO  LONDON DEATH JACK   JEBB's    LIFE    HARDLY  A 

FAILURE. 

BEFORE  the  end  of  the  strange  sequence  of 
misfortunes  which  began  with  the  acquisition  of 
the  Aztec  god  of  sacrifice  came  three  years  of 
comparatively  stationary  life  in  Mexico,  varied 
only  by  occasional  visits  on  business  to  the  mines, 
and  on  pleasure  to  some  of  the  great  haciendas. 
One  of  the  latter,  whither  Jack  had  a  standing 
invitation  which  he  frequently  availed  himself 
of,  was  a  perfect  bean  ideal  of  a  haunted  house. 
With  its  vaulted  and  gloomy  stone  corridors,  its 
secret  stairways,  and  its  deserted  wing  where  end- 
less echoes  of  the  past  seemed  to  resound  with 
every  footfall,  the  huge  fortified  building  told  in 
every  part  of  the  sad  and  stern  scenes  it  had 
witnessed  in  bygone  days.      Outside,  the  busy 


332  Closing  Years. 

stir  of  farm  life  and  the  lowing  of  thousands  of 
stock  went  far  to  counteract  the  gloom  of  the 
house,  while  a  little  farther  on  was  a  large  reed- 
bordered  lake,  on  whose  sunny  waters  it  was 
difficult  to  feel  even  the  shadow  of  care.  Many 
a  long,  lazy  summer  day  sped  past  like  a  dream 
as,  punted  slowly  along  by  Indians,  Jack,  with  a 
few  friends,  lounged  idly  in  the  little  skiffs  on 
the  lake,  shooting  duck  whenever  they  could  get 
near  enough,  but  for  the  most  part  doing  nothing 
at  all,  and  enjoying  the  operation.  The  birds 
were  very  wild,  which  was  not  surprising,  as  two 
or  three  times  during  the  season  they  were 
driven  in  all  around  the  shores,  and  then  every 
gun  on  the  estate  took  part  in  a  regular  battue, 
killing  thousands  within  a  couple  of  hours.  Still, 
an  unwary  bird  sometimes  fell  to  the  gun  of  a 
patient  sportsman,  and  if  "  bags  "  were  small, 
the  manner  of  trying  for  them  on  the  still  bosom 
of  the  lake  was  sufficient  pleasure  in  itself.  The 
restful  peace  of  a  few  days  like  these  always  went 
far  to  compensate  Jack  for  the  city  worries  of 
stocks,  shares,  and  negotiations  which  his  soul 
loathed ;  and  whenever,  in  the  rush  of  work,  he 
could  spare  himself  a  holiday,  it  was  safe  to 
predict  that  it  would  be  spent  out  of  doors  in 
company  with  a  gun. 


At  Palzcuaro.  333 

He  once  made  one  of  a  party  going  for  a 
week's  picnic  to  the  broad  waters  of  Lake  Patz- 
cuaro,  a  day's  railway  journey  from  Mexico. 
They  put  up  at  the  little  hotel,  which,  like  all 
those  in  outlying  districts  of  the  country,  was  a 
cross  between  a  barrack  and  a  workhouse,  only 
probably  not  so  clean  as  the  former,  and  less  com- 
fortable than  the  latter.  Jack  was  accommodated 
in  a  bedroom  that  to  his  great  surprise  contained 
a  piano  in  addition  to  the  usual  furniture  of  a 
camp-bed  and  a  washhand-stand  about  the  size 
of  an  ink-pot.  So  of  course  a  concert  was  held 
nightly  as  soon  as  the  mosquitoes  began  to  make 
life  unsupportable  on  the  lake.  At  first  all  went 
well,  although  a  few  strings  were  broken,  and  the 
ancient  instrument  was  wofully  out  of  tune :  still, 
by  dint  of  absolute  physical  force  some  stray 
airs  could  be  evolved.  On  the  last  night,  how- 
ever, of  the  visitors'  stay  the  piano  refused  to 
produce  anything  but  groans,  and  it  was  not 
till  well  on  the  way  back  to  Mexico  that  Jack 
remembered  a  very  probable  reason  for  its 
melancholy.  He  had  shot  a  gaily  plumaged 
bird  the  preceding  day,  intending  to  get  it 
stuffed,  and  on  returning  to  the  hotel  had  put 
it  inside  the  piano,  as  the  only  place  in  the 
establishment  safe  from  the  investigations  of  the 


334  Closing   Years. 

half-wild  curs  infesting  every  Mexican  village. 
He  had  then  proceeded  to  carefully  forget  all 
about  it,  and  there  the  bird  still  remained,  doubt- 
less greatly  to  the  discomfort  of  the  next  way- 
farer who  occupied  that  bedroom.  There  are  no 
drains  in  Mexico,  so  no  one  could  suppose  any 
peculiarity  in  the  atmosphere  to  arise  from  those 
trials  of  civilisation ;  but  one  wonders  whether 
the  victim  of  Jack's  forgetfulness  had  the  boards 
up  in  search  of  dead  rats,  or  held  his  nose  and 
suffered  in  silence. 

It  is  near  Patzcuaro  that  the  famous  picture  of 
the  Black  Virgin,  supposed  to  be  by  Murillo, 
hangs  in  a  little  village  church,  so  jealously 
guarded  that  but  few  strangers  have  ever  seen  it. 
By  assiduous  cultivation  of  the  padre  and  gifts  to 
the  church,  Jack  managed  to  get  a  sight  of  the 
strange,  weird  painting;  but  when  he  came  out, 
the  edifice  was  surrounded  by  an  angry  throng 
of  excited  Indians,  whom  the  priest  himself  found 
difficulty  in  keeping  in  check  until  Jack  reached 
his  boat.  Of  course  the  entire  tribe  believe 
firmly  in  the  authenticity  of  the  picture,  and  they 
are  convinced  that  the  whole  world  is  in  league 
to    rob  them  of  their  treasure. 

Between  work  and  play  the  months  slipped 
imperceptibly  past,  until  there  came  a  time  when 


Sets  Out  on  a    Visit  to  England.       335 

Jack  began  to  think  it  would  be  well  for  him  to 
go  home,  and  if  not  to  settle  down  permanently, 
at  least  to  spend  a  year  or  two  in  looking  after 
his  own  interests  in  London.  The  practical  work- 
ing of  the  company  he  represented  was  estab- 
lished ;  he  had  amassed  a  great  many  shares, 
which  were  expected  to  pay  a  large  dividend  in 
the  near  future,  so  that  his  prospects  seemed  in 
a  measure  assured.  Moreover,  he  was  now  well 
on  in  the  forties,  and  long  years  of  "  roughing  it  " 
were  beginning  to  tell  on  a  constitution  which  had 
once  been  adamantine.  Altogether,  if  he  were 
ever  to  leave  off  work,  the  time  appeared  to  have 
come  for  him  to  do  so  ;  and  some  English  friends 
being  about  to  return,  the  opportunity  of  pleas- 
ant company  on  the  voyage  home  was  seized, 
and  Jack  began  to  get  his  affairs  in  order.  Be- 
fore starting,  however,  he  had  to  pay  a  final  visit 
to  the  mines,  and,  accompanied  by  the  lady  and 
gentleman  who  were  to  share  the  journey  home, 
he  went  first  to  the  little  town  in  the  sierras. 
His  friends  were  not  so  much  impressed  by  its 
law-abiding  orderliness  as  they  might  have  been 
if  a  couple  of  murders  and  a  free  fight  had  not 
occurred  on  the  first  night  of  their  stay.  But 
contretemps  will  happen,  and  as  a  rule  there  was 
less  spontaneous  shooting  in  this  Indian  village 


336  Closing  Years. 

than  in  many  a  more  pretentious  place  on  the 
Texan  border.  Knives,  of  course,  often  came 
into  play,  but  as  every  Indian  carries  one,  his 
companions  know  what  to  expect  if  they  become 
quarrelsome. 

A  brief  inspection  of  the  mines  occupied  but 
a  few  days,  and  the  party  were  soon  on  their 
way  back  to  Mexico,  where  they  arrived  tired 
out  by  a  sixty-mile  ride,  completed  by  twelve 
hours  in  a  lumbering  coach,  over  stony  surfaces 
which  it  would  be  misleading  to  call  roads. 

After  a  short  rest  Jack  had  to  start  again  for 
a  farewell  visit  to  Chiapas ;  and  his  friend  vol- 
unteering to  go  with  him,  the  two  men  embarked 
for  that  animal  kingdom,  leaving  their  respective 
wives  to  pack  up  their  mutual  belongings  and 
join  them  later  on.  The  arrangement  was  that 
the  latter  should  go  down  to  Vera  Cruz,  taking 
the  luggage  with  them,  and  there  get  on  board 
an  American  liner  which  called  at  Frontera 
two  days  after  leaving  Vera  Cruz.  Their  lords 
would  by  that  time  have  completed  their  journey 
and  be  waiting  at  Frontera  for  the  arrival  of  the 
ship  containing  their  wives  and  —  almost  equally 
valuable  —  a  bath  and  a  change  of  clothes.  For 
Chiapas  is  not  a  country  where  it  is  possible  to 
travel  with   much  personal  luggage,  while  the 


Misadventure  by  the    Way.  337 

entire  State  probably  does  not  boast  a  single 
bath.  But  the  plan  did  not  work  smoothly. 
When  the  ship  got  to  Frontera,  anchoring  as 
usual  about  a  mile  from  shore,  clean  clothes 
and  cool  drinks  were  prepared  for  the  travellers, 
who  were  expected  to  come  out  with  the  agent 
in  the  tug,  which  soon  hove  in  sight.  But  to 
the  surprise  of  everybody,  that  gentleman  proved 
to  be  quite  alone,  and  in  response  to  the  ques- 
tions with  which  he  was  besieged  directly  he 
reached  the  ship's  deck,  he  said  that  there  were 
no  Englishmen  in  Frontera  answering  to  the 
given  description.  He  added,  moreover,  that 
he  had  never  seen  Mr  Jebb  in  his  life,  and  there- 
fore could  not  tell  if  he  had  passed  through  the 
town.  Knowing  that  statement  at  least  to  be 
a  lie,  nobody  knew  exactly  how  much  to  believe 
of  the  rest  of  the  agent's  assertions ;  and  as  the 
hours  went  by  with  still  no  sign  of  the  missing 
men,  the  anxiety  of  their  wives  was  shared  by 
every  one  on  board.  The  only  explanation 
seemed  to  be  that  they  might  have  been  de- 
tained on  the  journey  from  the  mines ;  but  that 
was  very  unlikely,  as  they  knew  the  exact  date 
of  the  ship's  arrival,  and  would  certainly  allow 
themselves  plenty  of  time  to  catch  her. 

When,  after  waiting  till  the  last  moment  with 
22 


338  Closing   Years. 

no  result,  the  ship  once  more  put  to  sea,  the 
feelings  of  two  at  least  of  the  passengers  may  be 
better  imagined  than  described.  But  to  their 
great  relief,  at  the  next  port,  twenty-four  hours 
farther  on,  came  a  telegram  from  the  wanderers, 
dating  from  Vera  Cruz,  and  saying  that  as  they 
had  missed  this  ship  through  reasons  which 
should  be  explained  later,  they  intended  taking 
the  next  one.  Meanwhile  their  wives  were  to 
proceed  to  New  York,  and  there  await  their 
arrival.  This  communication  was,  of  course, 
highly  satisfactory  in  the  sense  of  proving  the 
travellers'  safety ;  otherwise  it  simply  deepened 
the  mystery,  because,  in  order  to  have  reached 
Vera  Cruz  in  the  time,  they  must  have  left 
Frontera  before  the  ship  was  due  there,  while 
their  going  back  to  Vera  Cruz  at  all  was  inex- 
plicable, as,  besides  being  a  detestable  journey, 
it  was  twenty-four  hours  out  of  their  way.  Con- 
jectures were,  however,  idle,  and  there  was 
nothing  for  it  but  to  wait  with  what  patience 
could  be  summoned  until  reaching  New  York 
a  week  later,  where  an  explanatory  letter  w-ould 
probably  be  found.  But  the  more  the  two 
ladies  thought  over  the  instructions  to  them- 
selves contained  in  the  cablegram  they  had 
received,    the    less    did    they    feel    inclined    to 


Arrival  at  New   York.  339 

comply  with  them.  To  begin  with,  it  would 
be  necessary  for  them  to  spend  at  least  ten 
days  alone  in  New  York  before  they  could  hope 
to  be  rejoined  by  their  missing  spouses.  More- 
over, judging  from  the  tale  of  the  agent,  they 
felt  a  strong  conviction  that  the  travellers  had 
failed  to  time  their  journey  to  Frontera  pro- 
perly, in  which  case  an  object-lesson  on  the 
virtue  of  punctuality  might  be  a  good  thing 
to  administer.  They,  therefore,  replied  briefly 
that  to  wait  in  New  York  would  entail  needless 
expense,  and  so  they  had  decided  to  go  straight 
on  to  London,  whither  their  husbands  could 
follow  later.  This  message  appeared  to  act 
like  the  proverbial  "last  straw"  upon  men  who 
proved  to  be  more  sinned  against  than  sinning, 
and  it  brought  forth  a  prompt  response,  to  the 
effect  that,  instead  of  going  on  by  sea,  they 
would  take  train  to  New  York,  thereby  reach- 
ing that  city  almost  as  soon  as  their  wives. 

This  was  accordingly  done,  and  a  few  hours 
after  their  own  arrival,  the  two  ladies  were 
startled  by  the  apparition  of  a  palp  of  unshaven, 
dusty  objects,  clad  in  grey  flannel  shirts  and 
very  inadequate  suits  of  slops  —  they  were  both 
large  men,  and  the  average  Mexican  is  small ! 
Appropriate  language  in  which  to  recount  their 


34°  Closing   Years. 

wrongs  frequently  failed  the  travellers,  but  the 
gist  of  the  story  was  as  follows :  Anxious  not 
to  run  the  slightest  risk  of  missing  the  ship, 
they  had  arrived  at  Frontera  after  a  long  and 
arduous  journey  the  day  before  she  was  ex- 
pected, and  settled  themselves  down  there  to 
wait,  fortified  through  the  long  hot  hours  by 
visions  of  the  delicious  breeze  there  would  be 
on  deck,  and  of  the  delights  of  once  more,  clean 
and  well-clad,  sitting  down  to  a  comfortable 
meal.  They  had  taken  only  old  clothes  with 
them  to  Chiapas,  and  these  had  been  left  at 
the  mines ;  so  that  by  the  time  they  reached 
Frontera,  they  possessed  literally  only  what 
they  stood  up  in,  and  a  sack  of  fern  and  orchid 
roots. 

Still,  had  all  gone  well,  that  would  not  have 
mattered  ;  but  in  an  evil  hour  they  went  off  to 
call  on  the  Mexican  agent  of  the  American  liner 
they  were  to  meet.  To  their  absolute  horror,  he 
told  them  that,  this  being  the  "  norther"  season, 
the  ship  would  probably  not  call  at  the  port 
this  voyage,  as,  whenever  there  were  any  indi- 
cations of  one  of  these  dangerous  hurricanes 
blowing  up,  ships  always  kept  well  out  to  sea. 
He  added  that  there  was  every  sign  of  a 
"norther"  coming  on  that  nieht — indeed  the 


Left  in    Vera  Cruz.  341 

approach  of  one  had  been  telegraphed  —  and 
that  therefore  the  expected  vessel  would  steam 
straight  out  from  Vera  Cruz  to  Progreso.  But 
he  went  on  to  say  that  if  the  two  gentlemen 
started  at  once  in  one  of  his  boats  for  Vera 
Cruz,  they  would  probably  be  able  to  catch  the 
liner  before  she  left  that  port. 

Now  Jack  knew  perfectly  that  the  first  part  of 
this  story  was  true,  and  as  to  the  indication  of 
an  impending  "  norther"  he.preferred  to  take  the 
opinion  of  a  native  rather  than  his  own ;  there- 
fore in  a  very  short  time  he  and  his  friend  were 
seated  in  one  of  the  miserable  tubs  called  boats 
in  those  parts,  making  the  best  of  their  way 
back  to  Vera  Cruz.  The  weather  kept  perfectly 
clear  all  night,  and  as  they  sat  bolt  upright,  en- 
during every  species  of  discomfort,  they  were 
beginning  to  wish  they  had  risked  it  and  waited 
—  when  to  their  horror,  about  midway  between 
Frontera  and  Vera  Cruz,  they  made  out  their 
ship  steaming  gaily  to  the  port  they  had  left ! 
It  was  impossible  to  make  her  see  or  to  catch 
her  up,  and  they  saw  too  late  that -the  agent  had 
"  sold "  them  for  the  sake  of  the  $40  he  re- 
ceived for  their  passage-money  in  his  own  boat! 
There  was  no  redress,  — nothing  for  it  but  to  go 
on  to  Vera  Cruz,  as  they  sadly  watched  the  ship 


342  Closing   Years. 

containing  all  their  clean  shirts  pass  away  out 
of  sight  !  Even  their  thirst  for  the  blood  of  that 
agent,  though  great,  was  not  sufficient  to  take 
them  voluntarily  back  to  the  place  they  had  just 
quitted,  although,  had  they  then  known  that 
he  intended  to  disclaim  having  ever  seen  them, 
when  he  was  interrogated  by  their  anxious 
wives,  they  might  have  sacrificed  all  things  to 
embruing  themselves  in  his  gore!  On  reaching 
Vera  Cruz,  and  receiving  the  reply  to  their  cable- 
gram, they  went  straight  up  to  the  city  of  Mex- 
ico, and  after  investing  in  ready-made  clothes, 
which,  if  ugly,  were  at  least  clean,  they  em- 
barked at  once  on  the  weary,  dusty  journey  be- 
tween Mexico  and  New  York  —  arriving  there 
a  week  later  looking  considerably  the  worse 
for  wear.  They  were,  besides,  consumed  with 
righteous  indignation  about  the  action  of  their 
wives,  which  had  rendered  this  hurried  pursuit 
necessary,  if  they  wished  to  accompany  them 
across  the  "  pond."  But  their  appearance,  be- 
ing chiefly  a  matter  of  clothes,  was  soon  altered 
for  the  better,  once  they  came  into  possession  of 
their  respective  portmanteaux;  and  a  few  days 
more  saw  the  reunited  party,  with  their  past 
woes  softened  by  distance,  and  their  misunder- 
standings cleared  up,  on  an  Atlantic  liner  bound 
for  Liverpool. 


Settles  in  London.  343 

Jack  Jebb,  with  his  family,  took  a  house  in 
London,  intending  to  settle  down  there  for  the 
two  years  or  so  which  he  expected  to  elapse 
before  his  pecuniary  affairs  were  in  sufficient 
order  to  admit  of  his  buying  the  long-wished- 
for  steam-yacht,  and  beginning  his  wanderings 
afresh.  But  that  elusive  vessel  soon  proved  to 
be  as  far  off  as  ever;  for  whether  it  was  the 
vengeance  of  the  expatriated  idol  (who  looked 
singularly  out  of  place  in  a  London  drawing- 
room),  or  simply  the  evil  star  under  whose 
influence  he  appeared  to  have  been  born,  Jack's 
lifelong  ill-luck  still  pursued  him.  The  shares 
failed  to  keep  their  promises  of  speedy  divi- 
dends; one  or  two  small  ventures  of  his  own 
fell  through ;  an  expected  legacy  came  to  noth- 
ing ;  and  the  financial  outlook  grew  to  be  as 
dreary  as  that  into  the  London  fog,  with  which 
he  had  been  unfamiliar  for  many  years.  Had 
he  been  alone  in  the  world  all  these  things 
would  have  touched  Mr  Jebb  but  lightly,  for 
with  a  gun  and  a  few  cartridges  he  could  always 
provide  himself  with  most  of  the- necessaries  of 
life,  in  the  distant  lands  where  he  had  spent 
so  much  of  his  lifetime.  But  now  there  were 
others  dependent  upon  him,  and  for  their  sakes 
he  grew  depressed  as  he  thought  of  the  small 


344  Closing   Years. 

return  in  kind  that  he  had  got  out  of  an  excep- 
tionally hard-working  career.  He  had,  of 
course,  never  relied  entirely  upon  what  he 
could  make,  but,  like  most  men  who  have  lived 
much  in  the  wilds,  he  knew  no  medium  between 
"  roughing  it"  in  a  way  no  English  day-labourer 
would  do,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  luxuriating  in 
every  product  of  an  over-cultured  age.  He 
would  live  for  months  upon  salt  pork  without 
a  murmur,  but  when  he  had  truffles  he  required 
them  to  be  fresh.  Altogether,  it  took  but  a 
few  months  of  an  English  winter  and  a  re- 
stricted income  combined  to  make  him  feel  like 
a  caged  animal,  willing  to  sacrifice  almost  any- 
thing for  the  fresh  breezes  of  the  sierras.  There- 
fore, when  some  new  business  offered,  which,  in 
spite  of  its  being  of  a  slightly  visionary  nature, 
promised,  as  usual,  great  things,  he  turned  his 
back  on  London  with  much  joy,  and,  together 
with  his  wife  and  the  originator  of  the  brilliant 
idea  that  was  to  make  all  their  fortunes,  he  once 
more  retraced  his  steps  to  the  sunny  land  he 
had  so  lately  left  in  order  to  "settle  down." 

After  a  short  delay,  first  in  New  York  and 
then  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  Jack,  together  with 
his  captive  inventor,  went  on  to  some  rather  in- 
accessible mines  —  for,  of  course,  their  business 


Mexico  Once  Again.  345 

was  connected  with  mining  —  where  the  former 
threw  himself  with  increased  energy  into  the  work 
from  the  fact  of  his  year's  abstinence  from  the 
delights  of  monkey-poles  and  refractory  ores. 
To  his  great  surprise,  however,  he  soon  found 
that  he  had  become  physically  incapable  of 
supporting  fatigues  which  hitherto  he  had  taken 
as  a  matter  of  course.  But  he  felt  that  this  was 
his  last  chance  —  that  everything  depended  upon 
this  final  throw  of  the  die,  and  he  would  neither 
allow  himself  to  complain  or  to  shirk  any  parti- 
cle of  labour  which  might  promote  the  success 
of  the  scheme.  Consequently  his  ill  symptoms 
increased  as  they  were  neglected,  and  when 
occasion  arose  for  him  to  go  back  to  Mexico  to 
see  about  some  consignments  that  had  failed  to 
arrive  at  the  mines,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he 
performed  the  intervening  two  days'  journey  on 
muleback. 

The  day  after  his  arrival  he  consulted  a  doctor, 
expecting  to  be  told  merely  that  he  had  a  worse 
attack  of  malaria  than  usual.  But  matters  were 
far  more  serious.  He  was  warned,  that  he  was 
suffering  from  a  complication  of  diseases  always 
difficult  to  deal  with,  but  which  the  altitude  of 
Mexico  was  speedily  rendering  absolutely 
dangerous,  and  it  was  added  that  if  he  valued 


346  Closing   Years. 

his  life  he  must  journey  to  a  lower  level  without 
delay.  This  advice  was  sufficiently  startling  to 
have  sent  most  people  helter-skelter  out  of  the 
country.  Not  so  Jack  Jebb :  having  made  up 
his  mind  that  it  was  his  duty  to  do  all  that  lay 
in  his  power  towards  the  satisfactory  conclusion 
of  the  business  in  hand,  no  entreaties  or  persua- 
sions could  move  him  from  the  position  he  had 
taken  up.  The  most  that  he  would  consent  to 
do  in  his  own  physical  interests  was  to  spend  a 
fortnight  in  the  hot  lands  near  sea-level,  before 
returning  to  the  mines.  Probably  he  would  not 
have  conceded  so  much,  had  it  not  been  that,  at 
the  same  time,  he  could  direct  the  making  of 
some  new  implements  required  in  the  work. 
Another  month  was  expected  to  decide  the  fate 
of  the  venture,  and  for  that  period  he  was  re- 
solved that  no  weakness  should  prevent  his 
doing  his  share  towards  its  success. 

At  the  end  of  a  fortnight  passed  under  the 
shadow  of  the  great  white  mountain  of  Orizaba, 
he  had  recovered  enough  strength  to  give  rise 
to  some  hope  that  the  severity  of  the  medical 
sentence  had  been  exaggerated,  and  he  went  off 
to  the  mines  once  more,  feeling  better,  and  with 
a  dogged  determination  to  win  the  game.  But  in 
neither  sense  was  he  to  do   so ;  for  this  time  he 


Last  Illness.  347 

was  fighting  not  only  against  his  own  persistent 
ill-luck,  but  against  that  powerful  enemy  who 
prevails  always  at  the  last. 

The  beginning  of  the  end  was  that,  to  the 
surprise  of  every  one  concerned,  when  put  to 
practical  tests  the  great  scheme  collapsed  utterly, 
giving  no  hope  of  better  things  without  the  ex- 
penditure of  more  time  and  money  than  Jack 
had  left  to  bestow.  So  that  it  was  with  health 
and  spirits  brought  down  to  a  yet  lower  ebb 
than  heretofore  by  the  burden  of  a  great  disap- 
pointment, that  he  sadly  said  his  last  "  Good- 
bye "  to  the  country  which  for  many  years  had 
been  his  home. 

On  the  voyage  to  New  York  he  grew  gradu- 
ally worse ;  but  proceeding  to  spend  a  few  days 
on  Long  Island  with  an  old  friend  who  was  also 
an  eminent  medical  man,  he  was  there  tempora- 
rily patched  up  for  the  further  journey  to 
England.  His  host  owned  a  small  yacht;  and 
stretched  full  length  on  deck  in  the  hot  autumn 
weather,  while  faint  breezes  stirred  the  white 
sails  as  they  moved  lazily  over  tlve  sleepy  sea, 
Jack  almost  forgot  in  the  content  of  the  present 
the  disappointment  of  the  past  and  the  uncer- 
tainties of  the  future.  For  to  him  it  was  yet 
uncertain  —  though   his   friends  knew    that    the 


348  Closing   Years. 

sword  above  his  head  must  surely  fall  ere  long; 
and  feeling  that  it  must  be  for  the  last  time,  it 
was  with  aching  hearts  that  they  sailed  and 
sailed. 

Well,  at  length  he  got  back  to  the  house  in 
London,  which  he  had  left  with  such  bright 
hopes,  and  soon  he  too  knew  that  his  work  was 
done,  and  that  there  was  nothing  left  to  him  but 
to  wait.  At  the  age  of  fifty,  with  the  frame  of  an 
athlete,  he  was  worn  out  by  the  privations  and 
perils  in  which  his  life  had  been  passed.  For 
six  weary  months  he  endured,  with  never  a  mur- 
mur, a  confinement  which,  to  a  man  of  his  habits 
and  still  active  mind,  must  have  meant  torture, 
and  no  Indian  ever  bore  pain  with  a  more  silent 
fortitude,  as  day  by  day  he  drew  nearer  to  the 
peace  he  longed  for  and  the  rest  he  had  earned. 
When,  on  the  iSth  of  March  1893,  he  breathed 
his  last,  besides  those  to  whom  his  loss  was  irre- 
parable, he  left  avoid  in  many  lives;  for  a  nature 
so  loyal,  so  rich  in  brave  and  generous  instincts, 
in  self-forgetfulness  and  truth,  could  not  fail  to 
make  more  than  a  passing  impression  upon  all 
with  whom  it  came  into  close  contact. 

Perhaps,  from  a  material  point  of  view,  Jack 
Jebb's  life  was  a  failure,  in  that,  having  set  him- 
self to  replace  the  fortune  he  had  lost,  he  never 


Brave  and  Generous  Instincts.  349 

succeeded  in  doing  so.  Still  there  are  failures 
more  noble  than  success;  for  there  had  been 
times  in  his  checkered  career  when,  by  some 
slight  advantage  taken  or  some  illegitimate  power 
used,  he  might  have  won  all  his  aims.  But  no 
mean  thought  ever  touched  him  who,  through 
all  his  years, 

"  Bore  without  abuse 
The  grand  old  name  of  gentleman." 


THE   END. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 

AN    INLAND  VOYAGE. 

By  ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON. 

With  Frontispiece  Illustration  by  Walter  Crane. 

i6mo.  Cloth.  Price,  $1.00.  Paper  covers,  50  cents. 


"Since  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  wrote  his  delightful  'Travels  with  a  Donkey 
xn  the  Cevennes,'  English  and  American  readers  have  been  waiting  in  anxious 
expectancy  for  some  second  work  from  his  pen.  That  volume  was  so  full  oi 
light  and  air,  so  utterly  unconventional,  and  combined  in  so  natural  and  charming 
a  manner  descriptions  of  strange  people  and  strange  scenes  with  bits  of  reflection 
and  sentiment,  that  everybody  read  it  with  enjoyment  and  turned  its  last  lea. 
with  regret.  And  now,  in  'An  Inland  Voyage,'  comes  its  fitting  companion 
just  as  fresh  and  bright,  and  marked  in  even  a  higher  degree  by  the  same 
qualities  which  gave  its  predecessor  so  wide  a  popularity."  —  Boston   Transcript 

"The  weary  wight  who  would  get  to  himself  an  hour  of  harmless  pleasure  can- 
not do  better  than  to  go  on  '  An  Inland  Voyage  '  with  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
The  voyage  is  through  the  canals  and  rivers  at  the  Netherlands,  and  is  made  ir. 
canoes.  The  chronicler  of  this  pleasant  journey  tells  the  story  of  the  expedition 
with  exquisite  grace  and  humor.  The  slightest  detail  affords  matter  for  enticing 
comment.  All  the  little  adventures  of  ordinary  travel  are  interpreted  with  the 
imagination  of  the  artist.  A  bit  of  landscape  or  color  is  sketched  in  a  sentence 
or  two.  And  in  all  this  is  conveyed  a  graphic  impression  of  the  country  and  its 
inhabitants.  One  does  not  often  meet  with  a  book  more  thoroughly  charming 
from  the  literary  point  of  view,  with  such  attractiveness  and  freshness  of  style, 
or  with  so  piquant  a  flavor  of  individuality."  — Philadelphia  Item. 

"  He  has  an  uncommonly  vivid  fancy,  and  the  faculty  of  producing  odd  con- 
trasts and  securing  striking  effects  by  unexpected  arrangements  of  familiar  things. 
He  is  also  a  keen  observer,  and  he  has  a  piquant  and  vivid  style.  In  this  charm- 
ing little  volume  he  records  a  journey  in  a  canoe  through  one  of  the  oldest  and 
most  attractive  portions  of  the  continent,  starting  from  Antwerp.  The  peculiar- 
ities of  a  very  striking  local  life  are  reproduced  by  ma«y  quiet  touches  which 
leave  a  delightful  impression  of  freshness  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader.  Alto- 
gether this  volume  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  readable  of  the  season." 
—  Christian   Union, 


Sold  by  all  Booksellers.     Mailed,  postpaid,  by  the  pub- 
Ushers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS, 

Boston,  Mass. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


GLIMPSES  OF  THREE  COASTS 

BY 

HELEN  JACKSON  ("H.  H."). 
i2mo.     Cloth.     Price,  $1.50. 


Helen  Hunt  Jackson  has  left  another  monumental  memorial  of  her  literary  life 
in  the  volume  entitled  "  Glimpses  of  Three  Coasts,"  which  is  just  published  and 
includes  some  fourteen  papers  relating  to  life  in  California  and  Oregon,  in  Scot- 
land and  England,  and  on  the  North  Shore  of  Europe  in  Germany,  Denmark,  and 
Norway.  The  sketches  are  marked  by  that  peculiar  charm  that  characterizes 
Mrs.  Jackson's  interpretations  of  nature  and  life.  She  had  the  divining  gift 
of  the  poet ;  she  had  the  power  of  philosophic  reflection ;  and  these,  with  her 
keen  observation  and  swift  sympathies  and  ardent  temperament,  make  her  the 
ideal  interpreter  of  a  country's  life  and  resources.  It  is  impossible  to  analyze 
such  writing.  The  unknown  element,  the  illusive  secret,  which  is  its  charm,  es- 
capes one  like  an  impalpable  essence.  It  is  true  that  one  may  become  absorbed 
in  Mrs.  Jackson's  sketches  as  in  a  novel. 

The  papers  abound  in  these  pictured  landscapes.  Among  the  essays  here  co'- 
lected  are  "Father  Junipero  and  His  Work,"  "The  Present  Condition  of  the 
Mission  Indians  in  California,"  "  A  Burns  Pilgrimage,"  "  Bergen  Days,"  "  Th* 
Katrina  Saga,"  "  The  Village  of  Oberammergau,"  and  "The  Passion  Play  ?t 
Oberammergau."  The  work  is  one  of  permanent  value,  and  will  be  greatly 
prized   —  Boston  Evening  Traveller. 

The  name  of  Helen  Hunt  Jackson  has  already  become  an  honored  and  revered 
one  among  American  authors.  Passing  away  in  the  prime  of  life,  when  she  was 
writing  with  most  earnest  purpose  to  reform  a  great  wrong,  every  line  now  seems 
a  precious  legacy  to  her  fellow-countrymen.  This  volume,  though  sketches  of 
travel  and  short  sojourns  in  other  lands,  is  written  with  her  characteristic  bright- 
ness and  appreciation  of  the  romance  and  beauty  of  every  phase  of  life  and  scenery. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  all  these  sketches  are  bright  and  racy,  full  of  his- 
toric reminiscence,  beautiful  descriptions  of  scenery,  and  happy  appreciation  of  the 
habits,  character,  and  peculiarities  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  countries.  Like  all 
the  writings  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  it  is  pure  in  tone,  as  well  as  entertaining,  and  well 
worthy  a  place  in  every  library  for  young  or  old.  —  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

They  are  well  worth  preserving  for  their  literary  as  well  as  for  their  other  merits, 
especially  as  Mrs.  Jackson  displayed  in  this  kind  of  work  some  of  her  very  best 
qualities  as  an  author.  —  J 'n dependent. 


Sold  by    all   booksellers.      Mailed,  post-paid,   by  the 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS.  Boston 


POOR    FOLK. 

Translated  from  the  Russian  of  Fedor  Dostoievsky,  by 
Lena  Milman,  with  decorative  titlepage  and  a  criti- 
cal introduction  by  George  Moore.  American 
Copyright  edition. 

16 mo.    Cloth.    $1.00. 


A  capable  critic  writes  :  "  One  of  the  most  beautiful,  touching  stories  I  have 
read.  The  character  of  the  old  clerk  is  a  masterpiece,  a  kind  of  Russian  Charles 
Lamb.  He  reminds  me,  too,  of  Anatole  France's  '  Sylvestre  Bonnard,'  but  it 
is  a  more  poignant,  moving  figure.  How  wonderfully,  too,  the  sad  little  strokes 
of  humor  are  blended  into  the  pathos  in  his  characterization,  and  how  fascinating 
all  the  naive  self-revelations  of  his  poverty  become,  —  all  his  many  ups  and  downs 
and  hopes  and  fears.  His  unsuccessful  visit  to  the  money-lender,  his  despair  at  the 
office,  unexpectedly  ending  in  a  sudden  burst  of  good  fortune,  the  final  despair- 
ing cry  of  his  love  for  Varvara,  —  these  hold  one  breathless  One  can  hardly 
read  them  without  tears.  .  .  .  But  there  is  no  need  to  say  all  that  could  be  said 
about  the  book.     It  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  over  powerful  and  beautiful." 

We  are  glad  to  welcome  a  good  translation  of  the  Russian  Dostoievsky's 
story  •'  Poor  Folk,"  Englished  by  Lena  Milman.  It  is  a  tale  of  unrequited  love, 
conducted  in  the  form  of  letters  written  between  a  poor  clerk  and  his  girl  cousin 
whom  he  devotedly  loves,  and  who  finally  leaves  him  to  marry  a  man  not  admir- 
able in  character  who,  the  reader  feels,  will  not  make  her  happy.  The  pathos  of 
the  book  centres  in  the  clerk,  Makar's,  unselfish  affection  and  his  heart-break  at 
being  left  lonesome  by  his  charming  kinswoman  whose  epistles  have  been  his  one 
solace.  In  the  conductment  of  the  story,  realistic  sketches  of  middle  class  Rus- 
sian life  are  given,  heightening  the  effect  of  the  denoument.  George  Moore  writes 
a  sparkling  introduction  to  the  book.  —  Hartford  Courant. 

Dostoievsky  is  a  great  artist.  "  Poor  Folk  "  is  a  great  novel.  —  Boston 
A  dvertiser. 

It  is  a  most  beautiful  and  touching  story,  and  will  linger~in  the  mind  long 
after  the  book  is  closed.  The  pathos  is  blended  with  touching  bits  of  humor, 
that  are  even  pathetic  in  themselves.  —  Boston  Times. 

Notwithstanding  that  "Poor  Folk"  is  told  in  that  most  exasperating  and 
entirely  unreal  style  —  by  letters  —  it  is  complete  in  sequence,  and  the  interest 
does  not  flag  as  the  various  phases  in  the  sordid  life  of  tin-  two  characters  are 
developed.  The  theme  is  intensely  pathetic  and  truly  human,  while  its  treat- 
ment is  exceedingly  artistic.  The  translator,  Lena  Milman,  seems  to  have  well 
preserved  the  spirit  of  the  original  —  Cambridge  Tribune. 


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KEYNOTES. 

0  Volume  of  Stories* 

By  George  Egerton.     With  titlepage  by  Aubrey 
Beardsley.     i6mo.     Cloth.     Price,  $1.00. 


Not  since  "The  Story  of  an  African  Farm"  was  written  has  any  woman  de- 
livered herself  of  so  strong,  so  forcible  a  book.  —  Qrieen. 

Knotty  questions  in  sex  problems  are  dealt  with  in  these  brief  sketches.  They 
are  treated  boldly,  fearlessly,  perhaps  we  may  say  forcefully,  with  a  deep  plunge 
into  the  realities  of  life.  The  colors  are  laid  in  masses  on  the  canvas,  while 
passions,  temperaments,  and  sudden,  subtle  analyses  take  form  under  the  quick, 
sharp  stroke.  Though  they  contain  a  vein  of  coarseness  and  touch  slightly  upon 
tabooed  subjects,  they  evidence  power  and  thought.  —  Public  Opinion. 

Indeed,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  "Keynotes'"  is  the  strongest  volume 
of  short  stories  that  the  year  has  produced.  Further,  we  would  wager  a  good 
deal,  were  it  necessary,  that  George  Egerton  is  a  nom-de-plume,  and  of  a  woman, 
too.  Why  is  it  that  so  many  women  hide  beneath  a  man's  name  when  they  enter 
the  field  of  authorship?  And  in  this  case  it  seems  doubly  foolish,  the  work  is  so 
intensely  strong.  .  .  . 

The  chief  characters  of  these  stories  are  women,  and  women  drawn  as  only  a 
woman  can  draw  word-pictures  of  her  own  sex.  The  subtlety  of  analysis  is 
wonderful,  direct  in  its  effectiveness,  unerring  in  its  truth,  and  stirring  in  its  reveal- 
ing power.  Truly,  no  one  but  a  woman  could  thus  throw  the  light  of  revelation 
upon  her  own  sex.  Man  does  not  understand  woman  as  does  the  author  of 
"  Keynotes." 

■  The  vitality  of  the  stories,  too,  is  remarkable.  Life,  very  real  life,  is  pictured  ; 
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of  self-abnegation,  of  struggle,  of  victory.  The  characters  are  intense,  yet  not 
overdrawn  ;  the  experiences  are  dramatic,  in  one  sense  or  another,  and  yet  are 
never  hyper-emotional.  And  all  is  told  with  a  power  of  concentration  that  is 
simply  astonishing.  A  sentence  does  duty  for  a  chapter,  a  paragraph  for  a  picture 
of  years  of  experience. 

Indeed,  for  vigor,  originality,  forcefulness  of  expression,  and  completeness  of 
character  presentation,  "  Keynotes"  surpasses  any  recent  volume  of  short  fiction 
that  we  can  recall.  —  Times,  Boston. 

It  brings  a  new  quality  and  a  striking  new  force  into  the  literature  of  the 
hour.  —  Tlie  Speaker. 

The  mind  that  conceived  "  Keynotes  "  is  so  strong  and  original  that  one  will 
look  with  deep  interest  for  the  successors  of  this  first  book,  at  once  powerful  and 
appealingly  feminine.  — Irish  Independent. 


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TREASURE    ISLAND: 

<E  Storjj  of  tfje  gpanigj  JHam. 
By    ROBERT    LOUIS    STEVENSON. 

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"  Buried  treasure  is  one  of  the  very  foundations  of  romance.  .  .  .  This  is 
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it  is  a  book  for  boys,  with  a  boy-hero  and  a  string  of  wonderful  adventures. 
But  it  is  a  book  for  boys  which  will  be  delightful  to  all  grown  men  who  have  the 
sentiment  of  treasure-hunting  and  are  touched  with  the  true  spirit  of  the  Spanish 
Main.  Like  all  Mr  Stevenson's  good  work,  it  is  touched  with  genius  It  is 
written  — in  that  crisp,  choice,  nervous  English  of  which  he  has  the  secret— with 
such  a  union  of  measure  and  force  as  to  be  in  its  way  a  masterpiece  of  narrative. 
It  is  rich  in  excellent  characterization,  in  an  abundant  invention,  in  a  certain  grim 
romance,  in  a  vein  of  what  must,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  be  described  as  melo- 
drama, which  is  both  thrilling  and  peculiar.  It  is  the  work  of  one  who  knows  all 
there  is  to  be  known  about  '  Robinson  Crusoe,'  and  to  whom  Dumas  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  great  ar.mscur ;  and  it  is  in  some  ways  the  best  thing  he  has 
produced." — Loudon  Saturday  Review. 

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the  reader  of  Smollett  and  Dr.  Moore  and  Marryatt  as  well  as  the  admirer  of  the 
dexterous  ingenuity  of  Poe.  It  deals  with  a  mysterious  island,  a  buried  treasure, 
the  bold  buccaneer,  and  all  the  stirring  incidents  of  a  merry  life  on  the  Main.  .  . 
We  can  only  add  that  we  shall  be  surprised  if  'Treasure  Island  '  does  not  satisfy 
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A  cademy. 

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son's genius  is  not  wholly  unlike  that  of  Poe,  but  it  is  Poe  strongly  impregnated 
with  Marryatt.  Yet  we  doubt  if  either  of  those  writers  "ever  succeeded  in  making 
a  reader  identify  himself  with  the  supposed  narrator  of  a  story,  as  he  cannot  fail 
to  do  in  the  present  case.  As  we  follow  the  narrative  of  the  boy  Jim  Hawkim 
we  hold  our  breath  in  his  dangers,  and  breathe  again  at  his  escapes." —  London 

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TRAVELS  WITH  A  DONKEY 

IN    THE    CEVENNES. 

By  ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON. 

With    Frontispiece    Illustration    by    Walter    Crane.      i6mo. 
Paper  covers,  50  cents  ;  cloth,  $1.00. 


"  This  is  one  of  the  brightest  books  of  travel  that  has  recently  come  to  our 
notice.  The  author,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  sees  every  thing  with  the  eye  of  a 
philosopher,  and  is  disposed  to  see  the  bright  rather  than  the  dark  side  of  what 
passes  under  his  observation.  He  has  a  steady  flow  of  humor  that  is  as  api  ar- 
rently  spontaneous  as  a  mountain  brook,  and  he  views  a  landscape  or  a  human 
figure,  not  only  as  a  tourist  seeking  subjects  for  a  book,  but  as  an  artist  to  whom 
the  slightest  line  or  tint  conveys  a  definite  impression."  —  Boston  Courier. 

"A  very  agreeable  companion  for  a  summer  excursion  is  brought  to  our  side 
without  ceremony  in  this  lively  reprint  of  a  journal  of  travel  in  the  interior  of 
France.  For  all  locomotive  or  four-horse  stage  coach,  the  writer  had  chartered  a 
lit'ie  she-ass,  not  much  bigger  than  a  dog,  whem  he  christened  '  Modestine,'  and 
whose  fascinating  qualities  soon  proved  that  she  was  every  way  worthy  of  the 
name.  Mounted  on  this  virtuous  beast,  with  an  inordinate  supply  of  luggage 
slung  over  her  patient  back  in  a  sheepskin  bag,  the  larder  well  provided  with 
cakes  of  chocolate  and  tins  of  Bologna  sausage,  cold  mutton  and  the  potent  wine 
of  Beaujolais,  the  light-hearted  traveller  took  his  way  to  the  mountains  of  South- 
ern France.  He  has  no  more  story  to  tell  than  had  the  '  weary  knife-grinder,' 
but  he  jots  down  the  little  odds  and  ends  of  his  journey  in  an  off-hand,  garrulous 
tone  which  sounds  as  pleasantly  as  the  careless  talk  of  a  cheerful  companion  in  a 
country  ramble.  The  reader  must  not  look  for  nuggets  of  gold  in  these  slight 
pages,  but  the  sparkling  sands  which  they  shape  into  bright  forms  are  both  at- 
tractive and  amusing." —  N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"'Travels  with  a  Donkey'  is  charming,  full  of  grace,  and  humor,  and  fresh- 
ness: such  refined  humor  it  all  is,  too,  and  so  evidently  the  work  of  a  gentleman. 
I  am  half  in  love  with  him,  and  much  inclined  to  think  that  a  ramble  anywhere 
with  such  a  companion  must  be  worth  taking.  What  a  happy  knack  he  has  of 
giving  the  taste  of  a  landscape  or  any  out-door  impression  in  ten  words!  " 


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